It's not Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) that carried out the operation on May 22, in which homeless people within the city were picked up and dumped off at distant locations, Deputy Federal Territories Minister Loga Bala Mohan clarified today.

“This is actually a misunderstanding. The operation carried out that day was by another government agency. It was not carried out by DBKL.

“DBKL was requested to supply logistics support. So we provided them with the lorries and some helpers to help in the operation,” Loga Bala said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Kuala Lumpur Mayor Mohd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz was also present at the press conference.

The operation was actually carried out by the National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK), Loga Bala said.

He was responding to allegations that DBKL had rounded up the homeless in Kuala Lumpur and dropped them off at locations in Rawang and along the Karak Highway, without any reason or explanation.

In a statement distributed at the same press conference, DBKL said it provided two lorries and several officers from its Bukit Bintang branch office when its assistance was requested.

“On May 22, an Operasi Menyelamat Penagih Dadah (Ops Selamat), which was led and coordinated by Dang Wangi Kuala Lumpur AADK, had been carried out.

“DBKL was asked to help and as such, we provided two lorries and officers from the Bukit Bintang office branch for the operation,” DBKL said.

'DBKL provides assistance when needed'

Mohd Amin said DBKL provides assistance in any operation by government agencies, in terms of logistics, whenever these are needed.

“These things are not under our jurisdiction, but we just provide assistance only,” he said.

Loga Bala (photo) said he does not know where the homeless were sent to or why, as there was no need to discuss this with AADK.

He insisted that DBKL was merely a “supplying agency” and that the agency that should be explaining the issue is AADK.

DBKL has two homeless transit centres, in Medan Tuanku and on Jalan Pahang, so there is no need for it to behave in the way that was alleged, he pointed out.

“We are also in the process of building two more centres for the homeless. So, there's no reason for DBKL to act or behave in the way that was stated.

“Next time, I hope any NGO that wants to complain will check the facts before blaming any agency,” Loga Bala added.

The rounding up of the homeless incident was highlighted by Pertubuhan Kebajikan dan Persekitaran Positif Malaysia (Seed) exco member Lalita Abdullah through a posting on Facebook.

Through Seed, Malaysiakini contacted two of the homeless who had been rounded-up.
(two of the homeless)

One of them recounted how he was rudely awakened, bundled into a lorry with others and dropped off along the Karak Highway.

Another said he was put in a lorry with some 30 people and he was later dropped off in Rawang, with three others.

“They didn't tell us anything. They just gathered us and put us in the lorry,” he said.

It took these people several hours to walk back to Kuala Lumpur in the dark, they recalled.