Three journalists and a photographer of political tabloid Cabaran were taken in by the police for questioning while covering the Umno General Assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre today.

Editor Ahmad Lutfi Othman said police escorted his reporters, Rosmida Abdul Rahman, Mohd Nor Abdul Samad, Haris Zulkapli and photographer Rozaki Mohamad, to the Dang Wangi police station.

"But I don't know whether they have been arrested or not," Lutfi told malaysiakini in a telephone interview at 4.30pm.

He said the incident started at 2.30pm when Rosmida approached an Umno leader whose identity has not been revealed, for some comments.

"Then the Umno leader started to get suspicious and called other Umno members. When I called her (Rosmida) for the latest development, she sounded uneasy. Then, she said she was being escorted by a group of Umno officials.

"So I called the other three to look out for her. And the next thing I know they too were taken in by the Umno officials and escorted to the police beat base at PWTC," he said.

Publications banned

He said that all four were questioned by the police at PWTC before being told that they would be sent to the Dang Wangi police station.

Lufti added he was unsure why the four were being questioned because all were given legitimate pass tags to cover the assembly as representatives of Cabaran .

"However, I know they had with them several copies of pamphlets on reports which I lodged at the Anti-Corruption Agency against Mohd Khir Toyo, the Selangor mentri besar. The pamphlet contains a list of all my allegations against Mohd Khir," said Lutfi.

Lutfi has previously ran foul of the Home Ministry for his hard-hitting political magazines. Two of his magazines Detik and Al-Wasilah were effectively banned two years ago when the ministry refused to renew their annual licences.

Recently, Lutfi has ran a series of articles on the alleged corruption involving Umno bigwig Mohd Khir in one of his unlicenced publication which has now been taken off circulation.

Cabaran , a fortnightly tabloid, is one of his few remaining publications which is still in production.