PETALING JAYA, Dec 8 — A Gombak village chief denied today residents or Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supporters instigated the night-time clash with a group of Umno Youth members last Tuesday.
Said Zakaria, the head of Kampung Gombak Utara, said the ruckus that left several people hurt was triggered by outsiders he claimed had been brought in by the latter’s political foes to disrupt the PR rally.
“Based on our observation, more than half of the 100 to 200 Umno Youth who came and disturbed, threw stones and attacked those on duty and stall-owners that night were outsiders brought by the Gombak Umno Youth chief to stop the Pakatan rally,” Said told a news conference at the PKR headquarters here.
“So we reject allegations that the unrest was caused by villagers who reject Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan leaders,” he said.
He demanded that Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Omardin, the Gombak Umno Youth chief, apologise for what he said was an attempt to cultivate a culture of thuggery among villagers and spoil the village’s image.
Batu Caves assemblyman Amirudin Shari(picture), who was also present at the press conference, said the claim that PR had provoked the unrest at the rally was “not logical”.
“Clearly, they are now trying to find excuses...” said Amirudin, who is also Gombak PKR division deputy chief.
Megat Zulkarnain, who is also the son of martial arts master Tan Sri Omar Din Mauju, had reportedly claimed PR supporters had sparked the provocation by throwing stones at Umno Youth members.
Amirudin also responded to Megat Zulkarnain’s claim that Umno Youth was having a briefing opposite the rally’s venue on Tuesday night, saying that it was a new method to conduct a briefing with banners and loudspeakers.
Rough house tactics, which have been a feature of Malaysian politics, went up a notch with the first stabbing at a political rally ahead of the 13th general election.
A PKR supporter was stabbed in the left shoulder with a sharp object, while a party volunteer was also injured when a stone struck his head in the Tuesday night commotion in Gombak, a suburb on the fringe of the national capital.
This is not the first attack on a PR rally, with a similar incident happening in Lembah Pantai where a crowd at a rally held by Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was attacked.
The PKR bus used by Anwar and party leaders for its nationwide pre-election campaign tour, Jelajah Merdeka Rakyat, has also been repeatedly splashed with paint and damaged by rocks hurled by assailants.
MORE TO COME
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