Human rights watchdog Suaram has given the police the thumbs up over their conduct in handling the nationwide Bersih 5 convoy programme in recent weeks.

In a statement, Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said that the police have a unique and crucial role in ensuring that the public could exercise their right to peaceful assembly.

"Their role in this is not only a responsibility not to restrict, but also the responsibility to facilitate any peaceful assembly.

"To this end, Suaram applauds the commendable support and assistance shown by the police force throughout the weeks and strongly support the neutral and impartial assistance to participants," said Sevan.

However, Sevan also reminded the police that they need to take stern action against the 'red shirts' who were adopting increasingly violent means to oppose the Bersih 5 convoy.

According to Sevan, the altercation on Saturday, which saw Bersih supporters and media personnel being roughed up by the 'red shirts' in Kuala Selangor, was an increasingly dangerous trend.

"The events and escalating violence documented in the past few weeks have make it undeniably clear that Jamal and the 'red shirts' that he leads plots to derail Bersih 5 through whatever means available to them.

"The growing threat shown by the ‘red shirt’ supporters suggest that more proactive steps need to be taken to mitigate and defuse these ‘counter-protestors’ before any untoward incident take place.

"To this end, Suaram calls for a swift investigation into the criminal acts committed by (Sungai Besar Umno division head) Jamal Md Yunos and his supporters and for them to be prosecuted accordingly." said Sevan.

Election reforms pressure group Bersih have been organising several convoys throughout the country to drum up support for the Bersih 5 rally scheduled for Nov 19.

Although most convoys were without incident, there have been several attempts to disrupt the convoys in north-eastern Selangor by the so-called 'red shirts' led by Jamal.

The latest incident on Saturday saw several 'red shirts' attempting to compel media personnel into deleting footages and photographs.