Mystery surrounds the shooting of several Indonesian migrant workers at a quarry in Kuala Lumpur last week. A media report claims they were shot by a security guard believing them to be robbers. But a non-governmental organisation has a different version.

The Indonesia-based Migrant Care claimed that the men were shot by a group who claimed to be policemen.

Last Thursday, the Star daily pinned the blame on a security guard for the shooting and quoted Petaling Jaya police chief Ghazali Mohd Amin as saying that the four Indonesians, aged 21-36, had survived and received treatment at the Selayang hospital.

However, Migrant Care's country coordinator Alex Ong said there were six Indonesians, all of whom are illegal migrants, who were injured in the incident.

Ong, who visited the site in Bukit Lanjang, identified the six as Gas Par, Markus, Remi, Dedy, Adrainus and Abdul. They sustained shots to the stomach, shoulder and legs.

According to the Migrant Care official, an eye-witness, who wanted to be identified only as Mat, told him that 10 men claiming to be policemen arrived at the quarry in two vans and began to fire on the workers without warning.

'They did not fire any warning. It was very trigger-happy. Mat managed to escape the bullets by hiding behind the quarry stone blocks," he added.

Ong said there are two possibilities - that the 10 men had been hired to purge the site of illegal immigrants or they had attempted to rob the place.

Investigations ongoing

Meanwhile, Petaling Jaya deputy police chief Abdul Rahman Ibrahim said the case is still being investigated.

"The case has not been solved yet. We are investigating claims from both sides," he added when contacted.

However, he said there were only four, and not six as claimed by Migrant Care, who were involved in the incident.

According to him, they did not suffer serious injuries and had only received outpatient treatment. The four are being held at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters to facilitate investigations.

A delegation of Indonesian parliamentarians , who were in Kuala Lumpur last week, had wanted to visit the four Indonesians but were denied permission by the police.

An officer from the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur today confirmed that ambassador Drs H Rusdihardjo visited the four last Saturday.

The officer, who declined to be named, said the embassy is still cooperating with the police to get the facts of the case.

They are contradictory statements from different sources regarding the incident and this must be verified, he said.

However, he added that the embassy believes that the four workers were not involved in any criminal activities.