Prominent human rights lawyer P Uthayakumar has applied for a firearms licence after he was allegedly assaulted and threatened at gunpoint by several men last week.

Contacted today, he said the application was made two days ago as he no longer felt safe.

"I used to say that Malaysia was a safe country but after what happened to me, I no longer feel that way," he added.

The lawyer, a vocal critic of police abuses, said he was assaulted and threatened at gunpoint last Monday after the men had blocked his car with their vehicles at a residential area in Kuala Lumpur.

The assailants also smashed his car windscreen and windows. Uthayakumar suffered injuries to his face, hands and legs as a result of the assault.

In his police report, the lawyer said he believed that the police top brass were behind the attack as they were unhappy with him taking up cases with elements of police brutality.

He also claimed that the catalyst for the assault could have been his latest case concerning missing detainee G Francis Udayapan .

Meanwhile, the police said they could not proceed with the investigation into the assault case as Uthayakumar refuses to have his statement recorded.

Responding to this, Uthayakumar said he has no faith in the police force.

"From the begining, I had no confidence in them (the police) because they are the accused. How do I give a statement to the accused?" he added.

The lawyer also revealed that he wrote to the police commission - which is currently investigating cases of police abuses - to probe his assault.

24-hour protection

In a related development, a non-government organisation urged Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to provide Uthayakumar with around the clock protection.

In a press statement today, Police Watch and Human Rights Committee chairperson RN Rajah said the lawyer has played an important role as 'society's watchdog'.

He added that Uthayakumar's lawyers have written to Inspector-General of Police Mohd Bakri Omar to provide 24-hour protection but nothing has come forth.

Prior to his assault, Uthayakumar requested police protection after the windscreen of his car was a smashed at his office's car park in Kuala Lumpur.

Rajah said a clear message must be sent to the police force and called for the sacking of several top police officers, including the IGP.

"They are not above the law and there should be a total revamp of the entire police force," he added.

Over the past years, Uthayakumar has ruffled many feathers in the police force by taking up cases pertaining to deaths in police custody and police shootings.

He had also accused the police on numerous occasions of being trigger happy and had complied a detail report on those killed by the force.

His ' Memorandum on a Trigger Happy Royal Malaysian Police Force' included the statistic that 1.3 people are shot dead by the police every week in Malaysia based on figures announced by then Deputy Home Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir in Parliament in 1999.