The police does not owe the world an explanation on why the police sought a travel ban against political cartoonist Zunar, said police chief Khalid Abu Bakar.

"I don't have to tell the world about the justification (for the travel ban).

"If he had contacted me, I would have been very happy to explain it to him but since he has openly said he would challenge me in court, go ahead, challenge me in court.

"I will wait for his challenge in court," the IGP said in a press conference after launching the smart library at the police training centre in Kuala Lumpur today.

Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee SM Anwar Ulhaque, was informed of the travel ban when he attempted to board a plane to Singapore on Monday.

He also found out that the directive for the ban had came directly from the IGP.

The award-winning cartoonist, who often lampoons local politicians and Khalid in his works, had then said that he would challenge the ban in court.

Several of Zunar's books, including collections of cartoons published on Malaysiakini, have been banned.

He also faces multiple charges for making allegedly seditious tweets on the sodomy conviction of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Snake pit issue

On a separate issue, the IGP clarified today that the police was not looking to arrest whoever took the viral video depicting schoolchildren forced to wade through a snake-filled pond during a training session.

"We want to find whoever took that video and made it viral, because they are our main witness.

"We want the person who took that video to come forward. We don't want to arrest them, we just want to take their witness statement," he said.

The priority right now, he said, is to establish whether any crimes were committed by those involved in training the children.

"In my opinion, there are elements of abuse in that incident. There's no way you're going to train schoolchildren like you train commandos," he said.

In the two-minute-50-seconds video clip which went viral on Sunday, a group of female schoolchildren can be seen wading through a muddy pond with a snake in it.

More snakes were then thrown into the pond and the children were sprayed with a water hose and told to "be brave".

Screaming and crying hysterically, the students frantically tried to climb out of the pool.

Netizens largely condemned the incident, saying that schoolchildren should not be subjected to such traumatic treatment.

The training session was later revealed to be from the Kuala Kangsar Civil Defence Force (APM) training camp.

APM then suspended four instructors and six assistants from the Kuala Kangsar camp, saying that the methods employed violated the force's standard operating procedures.