At least 12 people were killed and 232 others injured in clashes outside a Coptic church Saturday night in Egyptian capital of Cairo, making the sectarian relations a test for the transitional government.

Firefighters, surrounded by angry Muslims, battle a blaze at a church in Cairo's Imbaba neighborhood on Saturday night. Clashes erupted between Muslims and Christians in the Egyptian capital after rumors that a Christian woman who converted to Islam was being held against her will inside the church. [Chinadaily.com.cn via Agencies]

The military prosecution will be responsible for investigations into the sectarian sedition event, said Adel El-Said, spokesman for the public prosecution.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces announced Sunday through its official page on the Facebook, that it had detained 190 people suspected of involvement in the sectarian incident for military prosecution.

More clashes erupted when thousands of Copts started a sit-in in front of the state TV building against the sectarian clashes in Imbaba, Giza. The traffic in downtown Cairo was crippled and the security forces cordoned off the whole building.

Egyptian caretaker Prime Minister Essam Sharaf called for an emergency cabinet meeting, and postponed his Gulf tour scheduled for Sunday.

The cabinet decided to activate laws of combating terrorism and attacking worshipping houses, and to punish any thuggery actions, sedition and to support the security forces and to stop the strikes leading to disturbance of daily work, caretaker Minister of Justice Mohamed al-Gendi said in a press conference on Sunday.

Giza governor Ali Abdel-Rahman said it is much quieter in Imababa now and that the police and the army were deployed there and have taken control of the situation.

Egyptian analysts attributed the repetition of the sectarian events among Muslims and Copts to the absence of security and the emergence of the salafists.

Clashes erupted outside the Saint Mena Coptic Orthodox Church Saturday night in Imbaba neighborhood, Giza Governorate when groups of angry Muslims headed to the church where they said a Coptic girl was held inside for consenting to marry a Muslim.

On March 8, clashes erupted around the Saint Samaan Monastery in Moqatam. Thirteen were killed and 140 others were injured.

Nabiel Abdel Fatah, an analyst, said these events resulted from historic accumulations for 40 years, adding that an absence of security after the protests that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak were also blamed for these violent acts. Some Salafists in the slums and marginal districts fanned people suffering from unemployment and lack of services.

Naguib Gebrael, a Coptic lawyer, said assaults against the Christians were occasional and unannounced in the former government, but now it was blatant and constant.

"The salafists seek a religious country which frightens the Coptic," said Gebrael.

The minority Copts account for about 10 percent of Egypt's total population. Coptics and Muslims in Egypt generally live in peace, but sporadic violence occurs due to the construction of churches or romantic affairs between worshippers of the two groups.

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