The Bar Council today urged Inspector-General of Police Mohd Bakri Omar (photo right) to order a thorough investigation into the assault on human rights lawyer P Uthayakumar.

Its president Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari (top left) said the investigation must be carried out by senior officers not connected to the cases that the lawyer was involved in.

"The Bar Council views the incident with serious and urgent concern, especially in the light of the background circumtances described by Uthayakumar," he added in a statement.

He said lawyers, activists and citizens who deal with cases of alleged police abuse are positive contributors to the development of society and must be allowed to operate in an environment free of fear.

"Hence, it is important that an allegation there may be a more sinister dimension to the recent incident involving Uthayakumar must be taken seriously and be investigated with objectivity and thoroughness as public confidence is at stake.

"If Uthayakumar's suspicion or belief turns out to be true, the perpertrators, no matter who they may be, must be exposed and made to answer," Khutubul said.

Acrimonious relationship

Uthayakumar, a vocal critic of police abuses, claimed that he was assaulted and threatened at gunpoint by a group of men on Monday.

The lawyer, who sustained injusries to his face, hands and legs, said his assailants had also smashed his car's windscreen and windows with a sledgehammer.

In his police report, he alleged that the police top brass were involved in the attack as they were angry with him for championing certain cases such as deaths of police detainees and suspected criminals killed in shootouts.

Uthayakumar is currently involved in the case of missing detainee G Francis Udayapan, whom police claimed had escaped from the Brickfields district police headquarters by jumping into a nearby river.

However, his family suspected foul play and subsequently the case was probed by Bukit Aman police.

Much to the chargrin of the family, the federal police later claimed that it had found no elements of foul play.

Meanwhile, the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee (KLBC) also called on the police chief to set up an independent team to investigate the assault on Uthayakumar.

"KLBC views with grave concern the assault and battery committed against a member of the KL Bar," said its chairperson Jerald Gomez in a statement.

"This is especially so in light of the active roled Uthayakumar plays in raising public awareness of and calling on the police to account for the deaths of persons in police custody, and in connection therewith the acrimonious relationship between Uthayakumar and the police," he added.