Hindu rights group stages rally in Malaysia, over 100 arrested

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police today arrested 109 members of a group linked to a banned Hindu rights outfit of ethnic Indians for participating in an "illegal" rally here to protest against the introduction of a controversial book in the country's senior school curriculum.

Those arrested included eight women and belonged to the Human Rights Party (HRP), an offshoot of the outlawed Hindu Rights Action Force ( Hindraf).

Later, 101 activists were released by the authorities. However, eight others, including P Uttayakumar who heads the HRP, were still being investigated.

"They will be freed once the investigations are completed," police said in a statement here.

The protesters, mostly ethnic Indians, were against the introduction of the Malay language novel 'Interlok' in the senior school curriculum.

A section of the minority community, including the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) -- the country's largest ethnic Indian political party, believes the book contains offensive words like 'pariah' which they say connotes a caste system that they claim does not exist in this country.

The protest came despite the government's assurance that the book would be introduced in the curriculum only after amendments were made.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said the protesters wanted to grab media attention.

"We do not want to be hard on them but they are hoping that the police will use violence against them and when that happens, it will be good stuff for the international media to exploit. Their intention is to paint a bad image for the country," Najib said.

The group can always submit their memorandum or meet him to settle any problem without resorting to illegal demonstration, he added.

City police chief, Deputy Commissioner Zulkifli Abdullah, had earlier said the 109 persons were held to maintain order and security within the city.

The arrested people were in the age group of 18-66 and eight of the group's leaders are believed to be among them.

Zulkifli said that those who participated in today's "illegal" gathering to protest against the novel were an isolated group.

"It does not speak for the whole Indian community as we have been approached by about 13 Indian NGOs supporting our stance against the illegal gatherings," he said.

The arrests were made as the protesters walked from the Rennaisance Hotel to the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) outside the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest building in the world a few years ago.

Though the main group of protesters was stopped by the police near the hotel before they could march to the Petronas twin towers, a section managed to evade police to make their way to the protest venue.