RapidKL should share the blame for aggravating the Bersih 3.0 situation by suspending its services around the time that the rally started to disperse, and when chaos developed at around 3pm last Saturday, said the DAP.

"While the focus of attention is on the ruthless police brutality against last weekend's assembly participants calling for free and fair elections, one of the biggest culprits in aggravating the chaos in the city is RapidKL," said DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua.

NONE Pua ( right ) in a statement today noted that RapidKL's service had been "exemplary" in the morning but abruptly stopped for no "rhyme or reason" at approximately 3pm.

This, he said, was just minutes after Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan formally announced that the Bersih protest had been  an unprecedented success and called on the participants to disperse peacefully.

"The fact was there must have been in excess of a hundred thousand people converged on the relevant roads like Jalan Tun Perak which made movement almost impossible, with the most logical "outlet" being the LRT stations.

"However the closure of the stations made these peaceful rally participants sitting ducks facing the full force of tear gas and water cannons from the police," he said.

He added that there were also instances of police picking up people from LRT stations, taken to alleyways and beaten up.

"The only outcome from RapidKL's inexplicable decision was to intentionally delay the dispersal of Bersih participants and to serve them on a silver platter to police brutality.

Stations closed to 'protect' public?

According to RapidKL's tweet that day, Pua said the train company had admitted that this was done on police instructions to "protect" the public.

Describing the justification as "absolute nonsense", Pua said the move had instead threatened the safety of  the Bersih 3 participants who wanted to disperse.

bersih 3 rally 040512 zw03 "The police must also confirm if they had instructed RapidKL to close these key LRT stations after the participants had commenced dispersing and if they did, whether they did so to prevent Bersih 3.0 participants from dispersing and leaving the venue," he said.

According to RapidKL's tweet on that day, the stations that were closed were at Masjid Jamek, Pasar Seni, Dang Wangi, Plaza Rakyat and Bandaraya.

Pua also called on the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) to summon RapidKL's top management for an explanation of its actions and whether it had colluded with the police.

"Those found guilty of jeopardising the interest and safety of tens of thousands of ordinary Malaysians must be punished severely," he said.