Luxor’s new governor, a member of an Islamist party linked to a massacre of tourists in Egypt’s famed temple city, on Sunday said he was quitting after his appointment triggered an outcry and the resignation of the tourism minister.
Adel Al Khayat told a news conference broadcast live on television that he had decided “to submit my resignation to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.”
Khayat is member of the political arm of the group Jemaa Al Islamiya which had claimed responsibility for the massacre of 58 tourists in an attack in Luxor in 1997.
Egypt’s president Muhammad Mursi has gone under serious criticisms for his choice of people as political office holders with the opposition accusing him of appointing only members of his Muslim Brotherhood in top government posts.
An opposition-backed protest has been slated for June 30 as calls for resignation of Mursi and early elections increase in the North African country. The opposition claims Mursi’s government has betrayed the revolution that brought himm into office.
