Protester forced by police to 'run the gauntlet'

Eight alleged victims of police brutality have lodged police reports at the Petaling Jaya police headquarters yesterday, including one who claimed that he was forced to run the gauntlet at last Saturday’s Bersih 3.0 rally.

The group, accompanied by activists from Lawyers for Liberty, Suaram and KL Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, demanded the Bukit Aman police headquarters to set up an independent investigation body to probe the incidents.

Engineer N Satish Kumar, 29, said he was punched and shoved around by some 10 cops standing in two rows, akin to running the gauntlet, when he was walking to a truck ferrying those arrested to the Police Training Centre (Pulapol).

Satish, who was documenting the rally, was nabbed when he was trying to flee from the cops who were arresting protesters.

Satish said he was taking refuge in Masjid Jamek to avoid the crowd caught in the plumes of tear gas until about 5pm.

“When I came out, suddenly the remaining protesters at Jalan Tun Perak near Masjid Jamek assembled and started shouting “Bersih, Bersih”, so I recorded that,” he said.

“But I got caught, and about 10 police personnel started to hit and kick me around,” said Satish, who was brought to the back of the Royal Selangor Club together with the rest of the detainees.

Satish said the memory card in his camcorder was snatched.

Another complainant, 26-year-old Mohd Faizal Norhakim (left) was allegedly assaulted by the police at around 5.30pm at Jalan Tun Perak while he was walking towards Dataran Merdeka.

He claimed that the men in blue suddenly charged at the protesters, and two of them held him up and began to beat him.

“When they dragged me back to the police base at Dataran Merdeka, there were a lot of police personnel along both sides of the road and they stripped off my clothes, punched and splashed water on my face,” he claimed.

Mohd Faizal sustained injuries on his back and is suffering from tremendous pain.

“I can barely move my shoulder,” he said.

He contended that the protesters did not provoke the police and only sang patriotic songs throughout their march.

‘Gas launched directly into the crowd’

Bersih supporter Lau Chee Sun had attended quite a number of street protests before, but at the Bersih 3.0 rally he saw for the first time tear gas being launched directly into the crowd.

The 41-year-old was at the intersection between Jalan Tun Perak and Jalan Raja when his left shoulder was hit by a tear-gas canister.

“I saw two tear-gas canisters being shot from the LRT track above my head, but I was sandwiched inside the sea of people so I could barely move,” he said.

The moment one of the canisters hit his shoulder and started releasing gas, everyone panicked and started pushing each other, gasping for air, Lau (right) recounted.

He became unconscious briefly, and was only able to rise out of sheer determination after he recovered.

“My doctor said my shoulder has been injured and it will take time for it to recover,” he said.

He claimed that the police were the perpetrators of the violence as the gas canisters came straight at them and was not the result of deflection.