Several Himpunan Hijau supporters were allegedly assaulted in front of Kuantan police district headquarters where they had gathered in a show of support for 16 anti-Lynas protestors arrested yesterday.

According to DAP’s Ketari assemblyperson Lee Chin Chen, the incident occurred at around 1am this morning.

When contacted by Malaysiakini , Lee claimed that supporters were assaulted by the same group that had participated in the attack at the Kuantan DAP office last month.

He said that the 15-member group of thugs was approaching the supporters silently, when suddenly a masked guy assaulted a middle-aged Malay man which subsequently caught the attention of others who tried to try to stop them.

There were more than one hundred supporters gathering outside Kuantan police district headquarters to show support to the 16.

“Six people were assaulted by them, and I was nearly beaten up. Fortunately there were people who stopped the thugs,” Lee alleged.

He said that the masked man was looking to attack the people who were dressed in Himpunan Hijau’s iconic green T-shirt, and he was wearing the T-shirt during the incident.

Lee said that the man wanted to assault him with a chair after spotting him, but was stopped by a man who stood next to him.

“I was just right in front of the entrance of the Kuantan police district headquarters and one police personnel just stood next to me. But he said nothing (when I was nearly assaulted),” he said.

Lee said that the group was chanting the slogan “destroy Pakatan Rakyat”, uttered threatening remark and even broke the flagpole of the supporters.

“Their purpose was to chase us away,” he added.

He said that the commotion lasted about 10 minutes and some Himpunan Hijau supporters were afraid and asked for help from the police personnel who were stationed at the entrance of the police district headquarters.

“The victims immediately sought help from police personnel guarding the main entrance (of the Kuantan police district headquarters), but not only did they not offer any help, they even locked the gate and pushed away whoever who wanted to get into the premises,” he claimed.

When control was nearly lost of the situation, Lee said that the police had finally acted to separate both parties, but they did not chase away the thug or immediately arrest them but allowed them to continue to stay on the scene.

Hence, he slammed the police for being “unprofessional” as the police should arrest these people according to normal procedure.

He said that the Himpunan Hijau chairperson with several Pakatan state assemblypersons will meet Pahang police chief later today to raise this matter.

'We are the ones who stopped the commotion'

However, Kuantan OCPD Abdul Aziz Salleh had denied that the police did nothing to stop the confrontation.

“We are the one who stopped the commotion,” he stressed when contacted by Malaysiakini today.

He said that the authorities will carry out investigation since a report had been lodged over this incident.

When asked why no immediate arrestment was done during the incident, Abdul Aziz merely replied, “The report had been lodged, we will continue to investigate”.

The 16 were detained during a protest organised by Himpunan Hijau held in front of Lynas Corporation’s rare earth plant yesterday afternoon.

Although 15 of them had been freed on police bail, Australian activist Natalie Lowrey was denied bail and may be charged in court.

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