PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin was today dragged away from performing his Friday prayers at the mosque in the Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) grounds, ahead of planned protests there.

Speaking to Malaysiakini after the ordeal, Shamsul Iskandar said he was grabbed by UIA security guards, put in a black Proton Satria and drived out of the campus grounds.

NONE According to the UIA alumnus, about 15 people, some wearing UIA security uniforms and some in plainclothes, stopped him just as he finished performing the wudhu' (ablution s) in preparation for prayers.

"I told them I wanted to pray first as the iqamat (second call for prayer) had already been recited, but they told me I couldn't and that even they couldn't perform their prayers," he said.

Shamsul Iskandar said that they refused to relent despite his insistence and it ended with them "carrying and dragging" him to the car.

The people in plainclothes did not show him any identification and acted in a rough manner.

Those who witnessed the incident, some of whom he said were UIA students, called out "Allahu Akbar!" when he was being manhandled.

'I was marked'

The PKR man, who was once a UIA student leader, said he had even asked to meet with the rector, a former lecturer of his, but the security personnel insisted they had "instructions from the top".

"They then took drove me about six kilometres away to the Taman Melewar area, where I asked to be dropped off at a mosque so that I could perform my prayers," he said.

The politician called an aide for a ride after his prayers, and re-entered the campus without any problem.

"They were too busy with the protest then. But by the time I arrived, the group was about to disperse," he said.

NONE Shamsul Iskandar is the only person forcibly removed from the UIA grounds today, although members of the public and the media were stopped at the gates.

"I believe that I was marked because they did not want me to lead the demonstration," he said, adding that he wanted to be there to show solidarity with his professor, Abdul Aziz Bari.

Some 700 people had demonstrated against the university's decision to suspend the constitutional law professor, over comments the academician made on a decree by the Sultan of Selangor.

The decree was on the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department's search at a dinner function in the Damansara Utama Methodist Church compound on Aug 3.

Aziz's suspension has brought him wide support from lawyers, academicians, students and politicians from both sides of the divide.

He has to respond to a show-cause letter issued by the UIA by Oct 25.

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