Saturday, 28 April 2012

222 arrested, police 'forced' to act

A total of 222 people have been arrested over their involvement with the Bersih 3.0 as of 7.20pm today.
The number was released by the police through their Facebook page.

In a related development, Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohmad Salleh  said in a statement late this evening that the rally was under control until 2.55pm.

He said that at 2.50pm, several opposition and NGO leaders addressed the crowd.

Following this, he claimed that the police cordon around Dataran Merdeka near the Jalan Tun Perak-Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman intersection was breached.

In order to enforce the court order to ban entry to Dataran Merdeka, under Section 98 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Mohmad said his men were forced to take action.

"They threw all sorts of object at the police and breached (the cordon) in the direction of Dataran Merdeka.
"The police was forced to use water cannons to repel the group," he said.

He said that this measure was futile and the police fired tear gas to control the situation.

Mahmod was referring to Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan's speech, where she declared the rally and success and urged the protestors to disperse peacefully.

Some of the protestors appeared reluctant to disperse, just an hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, and chanted "Dataran! Dataran!".

Minutes later, the cordon was breached and pandemonium broke.Following this, a cat-and-mouse chase lasted for about four hours.

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