Several student activists including University Malaya Student Union president Fahmi Zainol, are undergoing urine tests after being picked up by police in Kota Kinabalu today.

They were released after the tests were completed.

According to Pro-Mahasiswa national chairperson Abdul Muqit Muhammad, ten students were picked up by cops after giving a speech at Gaya Street this afternoon.

He said they were originally picked up to have their statements recorded.

He told Malaysiakini that after releasing three of them following the statement recording process, the police opted to conduct urine tests on the other seven.

They were released at about 4.30 pm in the evening, and plan to press on with the talk in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) tonight.

Muqit ( left ), who was among the ten originally picked up, is among the three student activists who were let off.

 

Fahmi, Muqit, and the others are supposed to have speak at a rally at UMS at 8pm tonight.

 

"I don't understand. If they are going to conduct urine tests on Fahmi and others, I don't know why they let us off and chose to conduct it on only them," he said.

'A ploy'

 

However, Muqit said that the whole process might be a ploy to deter the students from conducting their talk at UMS tonight.

At 1pm, Fahmi posted on Facebook that police took the students "to 'visit' the Kota Kinabalu police station" after they have a speech at the Gaya Street Sunday market.

He had earlier posted that the student activists will speak at the weekly Gaya Street market prior to attending a student rally at Universiti Sabah Malaysia tonight.

"Spot the hidden item," he had quipped in a caption of a picture showing a police truck at the market.

The students have been on a blitz to several local universities as part of the 'Reformasi Mahasiswa' campaign to revive student activism, but has received cold treatment from university authorities.

UMS issued a notice to say that there will be electricity outage due to "maintenance work" on campus tonight.

The same happened in UM when the student union organised a talk there featuring PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim on Oct 27.

Eight UM students, including Fahmi (above) , are facing disciplinary action for organising last month's talk.

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