Several Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members were allegedly assaulted in Sungai Siput, Perak by a group of men with crash helmets. The party claimed that MIC was behind the attack.

Sungai Siput is the power base of MIC president and Works Minister S Samy Vellu.

In a statement, PSM said its members - led by Sungai Siput branch deputy chairperson M Augusthine - were conducting a signature campaign among residents of Rumah Perumahan Awam, Rimba Panjang yesterday regarding a road project.

According to the pro-tem party, the unfinished project had created serious problems and was a nuisance to the local residents.

"PSM received complaints from local residents and passers-by and were collecting signatures in order to seek clarification from the engineers responsible for the project.

"These efforts received positive feedback from the public but MIC members who might have connections with the road project tried to stop PSM members from collecting the signatures."

At around 11.30am, PSM claimed that a MIC local councillor arrived at the scene and verbally abused a PSM leader.

The MIC leader purportedly said that work was underway to complete the project and hence wanted them to stop the signature campaign.

"Then in a short while, several vehicles and motorcycles came. At that time, PSM members decided to leave the scene and wanted to lodge a police report.

"But the MIC team shouted vulgar remarks and started to assault PSM members. They used helmets in the attack," claimed the party in the statement.

Six PSM members, including Augusthine, sustained injuries in the attack. Augusthine is still undergoing treatment.

Following this, six police reports were lodged over the incident and the police had recorded statements from five PSM members.

"Police have yet to make any arrest though there were positive identification and evidence on who attacked the PSM members," read the statement.

Unprovoked attack

Contacted today, PSM Sungai Siput branch chairperson Dr D Jeyakumar said he would meet with district police chief Asahari Othman tomorrow.

He also expressed regret that the police have classified the case as rioting instead of assault.

Commenting on the incident, he said it was an unprovoked attack as their campaign had only focused on the road and made no mention about MIC or its president.

He also said that they managed to capture a part of the incident on a video camera.

Asahari, contacted later, confirmed that police reports were lodged and that the case was being investigated.

However, no arrests have been made so far.

Meanwhile, PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan condemned the incident as a 'cowardly' attack.

He said the party would write to the Perak police chief to seek his intervention in arresting those responsible as they "might be protected by the MIC president".