Following last Wednesday’s female students protest at King Khaled University (KKU) in Abha, students on the male campus held a protest on Saturday. They demanded the resignation of Abdullah al-Rashed, president of KKU.
Wael Abdullah, a medical student at the university, uploaded this video early on Saturday showing the heavy security presence on campus in anticipation of the protest.
This video was shot by me this morning showing heavy security forces !! our campus not Dera'a youtu.be/7BABWAsFDOo #KKU #جامعة_الملك_خالد
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Will Abdul (@Xayish) March 10, 2012
Yesterday, Asir Governor Prince Faisal bin Khaled warned that protests will not be tolerated. But despite the warning and the security presence, students gathered this morning and began chanting slogans calling for the university president’s resignation, as videos uploaded to YouTube show:
Another video shows students singing the Saudi national anthem during the protest:
The protest ended peacefully after Assir deputy governor spoke to the students using a loud speaker, promising that the governor will meet with 20 students to listen to their demands. This video reportedly shows the deputy governor addressing the student protesters:
@ahmed Ended by meeting with the vice Governor whom we refused to talk to, he promised that 20 of us could meet with the governor tomorrow !
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Will Abdul (@Xayish) March 10, 2012
@ahmed and we will have one demand dismissal of the university president #KKU #لا_للراشد
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Will Abdul (@Xayish) March 10, 2012
Local daily al-Jazirah cited an unnamed official source at the university who said a number of officials will be fired in the next few hours. There have been unconfirmed reports about arrests of some students, but the general feeling among them after the protest seemed positive as seen on Twitter.
@ahmed this was amazing, today . It only proofs that our generation is wise . KKU admins tried to link (their) students with external agenda
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Abdullah laftal (@alaftal) March 10, 2012
عودا حميداللبيت بعد هذه الاحداث المشرفة
غداسأكون أحد العشرين طالبا الذين سيمثلون الجامعة للقاء الأمير
#جامعة_الملك_خالد #لاللراشد #لا_للراشد
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Saad.O.Ghamdi (@ssss313) March 10, 2012
Translation: Back home after these honorable events. Tomorrow, I will be one of the 20 students to represent the university for meeting with the Prince.
صورة للاعتصام
#جامعة_الملك_خالد #لاللراشد #لا_للراشد http://t.co/oZh9JSyG
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Saad.O.Ghamdi (@ssss313) March 10, 2012