The government today piled further pressure on the Hindu Rights Action Force by claiming that the movement was linked with terrorist groups, a charge which was immediately rejected by Hindraf’s legal adviser P Uthayakumar.

In a statement released late today, Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan said that Hindraf, organiser of the Nov 25 rally in Kuala Lumpur, was trying to solicit help and support from terrorist groups.

"Of late there have been indications that Hindraf is trying to seek support and help from terrorist groups," said Musa.

When contacted for comment, Uthayakumar vehemently rejected the accusations.

“I am not surprised he said that. Yesterday in court, the attorney-general linked us with LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and today this,” said Uthayakumar.

“Can I say that the IGP and AG are soliciting help and support from al-Qaeda?” he asked. “I am sure I will not be allowed to get away with it, but they will (by making the accusations).”

“Let me repeat this. We are definitely not trying to get help or support from any terrorist groups,” he added.

Arousing hatred

Musa also revealed that the police had been monitoring Hindraf since July 28 and in the course of the investigations discovered that the movement was active in fanning racial sentiments among the Indian community by stirring up their anger and arousing hatred against the government.

"Their actions are potentially explosive in sparking racial clashes," he said in a statement, as reported by Bernama .

Musa said the unregistered body - helmed by six prime movers comprising five lawyers and a senior executive of a private company - had also sought to deceive the people by asking them to put money into a fund to support the organisation's activities.

However, Uthayakumar said that whatever money Hindraf had collected were contributions from the public which has been used to bail out the protesters charged by the police for taking part in the Nov 25 rally.

“Some of the money was also used to fund P Waythamoorty’s (Hindraf chairperson) international trip to gain support for us,” he said.

Referring to the international lobby undertaken by Hindraf, Musa said that the latest developments showed Hindraf leaders were fishing for support from India, Britain, the United States as well as the United Nations and European countries.

"Hindraf is soliciting for external support by portraying a wrong picture on the actual position of Indians in this country to the foreign parties," asserted Musa.

Worrying activities

He added that Hindraf had made "false, baseless and slanderous" allegations that the government had marginalised the Indians.

Musa said Hindraf's activities and ploys have been very worrying to multiracial Malaysia.

"The police are concerned over Hindraf's activities and will not hesitate to take harsh action to guarantee the nation's peace and security," he said.

He stressed that the movement had inflamed sensitive and dangerous sentiments through forums, distribution of books and leaflets, posting messages on websites and via short messaging service (SMS) to garner support from Indians.

He also alleged that they masterminded the opposition of a group of Indians against a local authority for demolishing Hindu temples built illegally.

"They also planned to use gangsters to block demolition of temples by local authorities in future," he said.

The Nov 25 rally

According to Musa, Hindraf had defied the law and went ahead to stage the Nov 25 street protests because its real motive was to create chaos in the federal capital.

"But instead they twisted the incident and accused the police of using force on their supporters.

"They also cheated the Indians who attended the illegal gathering when they did not hand in the petition to the British High Commission despite having the opportunity to do so," he said.

About 30,000 Indian Malaysians participated in the rally what is seen as a protest against the government policies against the minority community.

The police had to resort to using tear gas and firing water cannons to disperse the crowd.

Earlier this week, 31 protesters were charged with attempted murder of a policeman and for causing damage to public property during the mass rally. Some of them were also charged with participating in an illegal assembly.

Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail objected bail for the accused persons, a call which was allowed by the court. In the course of the bail hearing, Abdul Gani had also alleged that Hindraf had links with Tamil separatist movement Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka.

Uthayakumar had strongly denied this link in the court.

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