The caretaker of the Mar Girgis Catholic Church in Daljā, Bishop Ayūb Yūsif, stated that there are about 150 Coptic families who were evicted from the village. He stated that the people in Daljā still feel insecure and there is no security presence in the village. He argued that the armed forces tried to enter several times, but failed and there are thugs who still issue “protection fees” on the people. “We are still making requests to the governor and the head of security department in Minya and all we are hearing are promises” he said.

The Bishop recounted that the events in Daljā started on August 14 when a house of a Christian by the name of Iskandar Tūs was attacked. Tūs went on the roof of the house and fired two bullets in the air. They went into his house and shot him in the chest and head then they cut his body with Swiss-knives and tied his legs to a tractor and dragged his body through the village. A Muslim buried the corpse, but the next day they extracted the body from the grave to provoke his family. His body was not examined, the prosecution has not investigated, and no death certificate was issued for him, he said.

A second case of murder was Hānī Shafīq, who was wounded and the head of security stated that he cannot send in an ambulance to move him. There are two cases of kidnapping and a woman was shot in the foot. “The Churches leaders are absent,” he bitterly said. He described trying to get Pope Tawadros or Bishop Isaac Ibrāhīm to intervene by phone calls to TV programs. He reported that the security forces are needed in the village to make people secure again (Peter Magdī, al-Tahrīr, Sept. 16, p. 11). This article has no link online.