'What about rights of cops and crime victims?'

Under fire for his "shoot first" policy, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has questioned why his critics are not defending the rights of those who fall prey to criminals.

"Where are the human rights for police and victims of robbery, shootings and murders. Why are human rights defenders not upholding this? Human rights only applies to criminals?" he asked in a terse tweet.

The tweet does not appear to refer to anything in particular, but comes after a barrage of criticism against him followingMalaysiakini's reports based on a leaked recording of his speech.

Zahid has been silent since the reports were posted on Monday.
He was exposed as having condoned the practice of shooting suspected criminals instead of arresting them.

He was also recorded as saying that he would go all out against people who defended criminals.
Critics urge his sacking
Zahid's critics, including international body Human Rights Watch, have urged his sacking over the remarks, which have also made news outside Malaysia's borders.

The remarks also prompted civil society groups to call for investigations into all extra-judicial killings by the police.

Among those shot dead in recent years were several youths, including 14-year-old Aminulrasyid Amzah. All of them were accused of attacking the police before being gunned down.

Then Selangor police chief and now Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar claimed that Aminulrasyid, who died in a hail of bullets, tried to ram into the police and carried a parang in the car he was driving.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Shahidan Kassim(right in photo), who was at the event when Zahid made the contentious speech, said it is "unethical" to report on a closed-door event.

"It was very unethical for the media and disrespectful because it was a closed-door event and not for public consumption," Shahidan told the Malaysian Insider.

He said Zahid's speech was on ways to curb crime and was "twisted" to smear those who attended the function.

The event was initially open to media but journalists were chased out as Zahid's speech progressed. 

Zahid had also threatened to shut down those newspapers that published any part of his speech.
Meanwhile, senior lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan snidely agreed with Zahid that victims, too, deserve justice.

“Agreed, for example Altantuya, Teoh Beng Hock, Aminulrasyid, Kugan etc. And only by due process,” she tweeted.