Nurul’s volunteers released

The Lembah Pantai MP has blamed the “act of intimidation” on Minister Raja Nong Chik.

UPDATED

 

KUALA LUMPUR: All four volunteers from Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar’s office who were detained earlier today have been released without bail.

The four were among six volunteers conducting a voter survey at the Sri Pahang flats in Bangsar Utama here this afternoon.

They were confronted by a members of the Umno Lembah Pantai division and later picked up by the police who took them in for questioning at the Travers police station.

Earlier reports had stated that they were picked up by police for impersonating Election Commission  (EC) officials. This same allegation had led to the arrest of two other Lembah Pantai volunteers just three days ago.

But subsequent tweets by Nurul’s political secretary Fahmi Fadzil revealed that the four had been accused of attempting to kidnap

children in the area despite wearing tags identifying them as party workers. They were released when police found these accusations to be baseless.

An angry Nurul called this latest incident a repeat of “intimidation and ongoing harassment” of her work as a MP and blamed it squarely on Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin.

‘Nong Chik has much to hide’

She pointed out that polling work is carried out by various parties across the country’s political spectrum and until recently, PKR workers were able to access the electorate unhindered by Umno members.

“But today’s incident in which my volunteers were trapped by Umno members in the Sri Pahang flats and accosted by the police proves that Nong Chik has much to hide,” she said in a text message to FMT.

“Their arrest despite procuring my acknowledgement letter and displaying party worker tags is a testament to an insidious working relationship between the police and the Umno leadership.”

Nurul added that Umno members were also actively conducting polling work and that both her office and Umno have informed the police of this exercise prior to this weekend’s work. She therefore questioned why her workers were singled out while Umno was left alone.

“This shameless act of collusion involving none other than the federal territories minister must end to ensure that government agencies and coffers are not misused in an effort to gain political mileage,” she stated.

“My volunteers have been released but six arrests have been made in less than a week. If this is not harrassment then I don’t know what it is.”

Nurul and the remaining two volunteers have since lodged a police report against Umno Lembah Pantai over today’s arrest.