Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia Veena Sikri today said the Malaysian government has not responded directly to two separate diplomatic protests lodged over the alleged ill-treatment of Indian nationals during a controversial police raid in Kuala Lumpur for suspected illegal immigrants.

"We are still awaiting a response from the Malaysian government. We are waiting for a full response before we decide (on what to do next)," she said when contacted.

The high commissioner added that in her protest note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was delivered this morning, she expressed her concern over the arrest of Indian professionals in the city over the past two days.

"We are concerned with why the large number of Indian professionals were taken to the police station despite holding valid documents and employment passes. We are also not happy with the way they were treated (while detained)," she said.

On Sunday, the police rounded up about 200 Indian nationals including IT professionals and lecturers at the Palm Court Condominiums in Brickfields. Those detained alleged that they were not given enough time to produce their documents. They also claimed to have been mistreated and physically assaulted.

Yesterday, the Indian Foreign Ministry summoned the Malaysian High Commissioner in New Delhi Choo Siew Kioh for an explanation following strong public protests over the arrests.

No communication

Elaborating o­n the Indian government's concern, Veena expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of communication from Malaysian authorities.

"The high commission was not informed of the arrests. We got to know o­nly several hours later via a cell phone call (from o­ne of those detained). When we tried to send our people to the police station, we were not allowed consular access," she said.

"This is a matter of great concern to us because (the individuals) are leading IT professionals in India and they were invited to work here by Malaysian companies. They should not be treated that."

Based o­n the high commission's records, a total of 195 Indian nationals were taken to the Brickfields police station o­n the morning of the incident. The police were said to have released 185 persons up until yesterday while several more were expected to be freed today.

"Of the total number arrested o­nly two or three may have to go through the judicial process. The rest of them obviously had their papers in order. You can see the percentages of those released," said the high commissioner.

Veena pointed out that although some of the Indian nationals were in the process of extending their employment passes, all carried valid expatriate identity cards issued by the immigration department here.

Asked why the police had arrested them if they had held these cards, she replied: "We are not sure why they did it but we would like to find out."

Handcuffed

Meanwhile, o­ne of the Indian nationals released yesterday said although he had shown the police his passport and special employment pass, the police had insisted o­n verifying the authenticity of the documents with immigration officials before releasing him.

"We were sleeping when the police came into the room asking for our passports. They took our passports and told us to go down to the car park area. They said that they had to verify our documents and took us to the police station in Brickfields," said 27-year-old web developer N Bhasker.

"The police initially said that about 20 passports were okay and 95 percent of our visas were not valid. The police said they had to do a manual check by scratching the text o­n our visas. They said that if the text (could be scratched out), it showed that the document is not an original.

"Later, they told us that we had to wait until the immigration people arrived for further checking," he told malaysiakini .

Bhasker said he was released eight hours later after two immigration officers arrived to prove the authenticity of his passport and visa.

"I was handcuffed and had to sit o­n the road the whole time I was waiting. Even when they asked me into the police station to verify my documents, they asked me to sit o­n the floor while they sat o­n chairs," he said.

Locals complained

Questioned about his plans, Bhasker said he has decided to remain in Malaysia until further advice from the high commission.

"The high commission has told us not to go back until they get clarification. This kind of treatment is like harassment. We are professionals but treated as criminals and we don't understand this. Yesterday, we were told that the police came again to arrest people," he said.

Asked what could have prompted the raid, Bhasker said it could be in response to complaints lodged by local residents at the condominium.

"The local people complained and said that many people were staying around and carrying out some activities," he said.

Another Indian national arrested o­n Sunday, who identified himself o­nly as Seshu, said the police told him that he would have to spend the night at the police station while his documents were verified.

"They came in the morning at 7:30 and arrested us even though we had all the documents - passports, employment cards...They o­nly released us at about 6pm after immigration officers said that our documents were originals," he said.

As a result of the raid, the 31-year-old software developer said he planned to leave Malaysia shortly.

"I have worked here for a year and before that I worked in Singapore. But now, I am planning to pack up," he said.

Two other Indian IT professionals who were arrested o­n Sunday, said they had resumed work at their respective workplaces and were awaiting for further communication from the High Commission.

Serious allegations

In a related development, Foreign Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the matter would be investigated.

"There are serious allegations of abuse of power and wrongdoings as well as mistreatment. We'll investigate the matter in a transparent manner," he told reporters at the parliament lobby this afternoon. However, he said the initial report received by the ministry did not indicate that the police had committed any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur deputy police chief Ahmad Bahrin Idrus denied that the Indian nationals had been mistreated

According to a Bernama report today, he said from the start of the operation at 9am, the police had acted within the law.

"The process, from the raid until those detained were sent to the lock-up, was in accordance with legal guidelines and there was no abuse of power or maltreatment against those detained as alleged," he said.

According to Ahmad Bahrin, the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters received information that Indian nationals staying in several blocks of the condominium were suspected of having fake passports and permits.

Following this, a team comprising 67 police personnel raided the building and detained 165 Indians and three Pakistanis.

He added that currently six Indian nationals were being held, four for not having passports and two in possession of expired passports.

Three Pakistani nationals were also in custody as their passports had expired.

Malaysia has been host to an increasing number of Indian workers since a directive by the Home Ministry last year that allowed employers to source workers from the country for specific sectors, o­ne of which is IT.

To date, about 2,000 Indian professionals are employed in various IT companies under the Multimedia Super Corridor plan.

In addition, tens of thousands more Indian workers are currently employed in various other lower-skilled jobs in the plantations and services sectors throughout the country.

Last year, the government proposed for Indian nationals to be employed to fill the shortage in the teaching profession following the decision to introduce English language instruction for Mathematics and Science in all schools.