breaking news

A Johor PAS Youth exco was arrested under the Internal Security Act this morning as the police enforced a blanket ban on political ceramah (gatherings) held by the opposition party.

Norashid Sakip, who is also PAS Youth chief for Sungai Bemut branch, was arrested at the Simpang Renggam police station at around 11am this morning.

According to state Youth chief Mazlan Aliman, Norashid was summoned to go to the police station regarding the permit for an upcoming ceramah on Aug 12.

Mazlan said after the arrest, the police escorted Norashid to his quarters in a religious school, of which he was a teacher.

"The police showed his wife a warrant which stated that Norashid was detained under Section 73 of the ISA," he said.

Section 73 of the ISA stipulates that any person may be arrested for a period of not exceeding 60 days for police interrogation. The controversial law allows detention without trial.

Arrest condemned

However, Norashid's wife was not informed of the reason behind her husband's arrest. The family is seeking to contact the police for more information on the arrest.

It is learnt that the police searched Norashid's quarters for nearly 45 minutes, and eventually he was brought to Johor Bahru.

PAS Youth chief Mahfuz Omar, when contacted by malaysiakini , condemned the arrest of Norashid, who is the first PAS member to be detained in the recent round of ISA arrests.

"Only yesterday we voted in Parliament that there should be no discrimination based on gender, origin and religion, why should we then discriminate someone because of his political ideology?" he asked.

He called for the immediate release of Norashid or for him to be charged an open court.

Earlier rounds

In April, police arrested 10 opposition leaders and pro-reformasi activists.

Four of them were released but the other six had been sent to the Kamunting detention camp for a period of two years on orders from the home minister.

The six are Keadilan leaders Tian Chua, Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor, Saari Sungib, Lokman Nor Adam, Dr Badrul Amin Bahron and malaysiakini activist and columnist, Hishamuddin Rais.

Last month, two student leaders were also arrested under the ISA but were later released.