In side streets leading to the square on one end and the interior ministry on the other, the army set up barricades of barbed wire, armored personnel vehicles and soldiers. A row of protesters stood a few hundred meters away near one army blockade, warning others not to approach to enforce the truce between security forces and demonstrators. On Mohammed Mahmoud street, protesters chanted “Go back, go back” to anyone approaching the blockade.

The riot police, the perpetrators of the worst violence over the past five days were nowhere to be seen.