Hundreds of soldiers from a multinational African peacekeeping force had massed there to prevent the rebels from reaching the capital.
"We have no doubt whatsoever that they are massed there to cross into our territory," Mr. Fernandes said today.
A couple hundred-thousand people were massed there, cheerful and waving flags, and it felt as if Tahrir had returned to its old revolutionary self.
It was a day when the Tour of Rwanda passed through Sashwara, and by late morning thousands of spectators had massed there along the road's shoulders.
The troops were massed there after an attack on India's Parliament on Dec. 13 that Indian officials blamed on Pakistan-based militants seeking to drive India from Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state.
Dolkun Isa, the secretary general of the World Uyghur Congress, the exile group based in Germany, said in an interview that the assault on the station took place after a crowd of perhaps 100 Uighur protesters massed there to complain about arrests of young men.
