Explosions outside court after acquittal

UPDATED @ 11:47:09 AM 09-01-2012

By Mohd Farhan Darwis

January 09, 2012

The man hurt in one of the blasts is helped by his friends.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — A man was lightly injured in three small blasts outside the Jalan Duta court complex here this morning, right after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was acquitted of a charge of sodomy.

The explosives were believed to have been planted in three traffic cones outside the courthouse.

The first explosion happened as Anwar was leaving the court compound. Minutes later, a second explosion blew apart an orange traffic cone near a sub-power station, about 50 metres away from the courthouse gates.

A demonstrator who participated in this morning’s Free Anwar rally at the car park outside the court complex suffered injuries to his right arm in the blast.

He was taken away for treatment in an ambulance.

The third and last blast happened at the hawker centre round the corner from the court complex.

Police dogs were brought in to sniff out if there were other explosives planted elsewhere in the area.

The police also ordered demonstrators to clear the area for their safety.

Anwar was unharmed. 

“Anwar will be heading to Permatang Pauh at 1pm today for a giant rally there,” PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang said.

He urged demonstrators milling about outside the court complex to quit the scene immediately as the main driveway was no longer safe following the blasts.