Like many victims of police violence during Sunday's tragic anti-fuel and electricity price hike demonstrations, Zahir Hassan who suffered a bone crunching kick to the jaw, is still nursing his wounds.

But the brutal beating he suffered has not slowed the 45-year-old father of seven down, as his family, work and politics demand plenty of his time.

"A few of my teeth are a bit loose after the incident. Doctors have advised that I not consume solid food for the next two weeks," said Zahir, a trained engineer turned Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy secretary-general.

Zahir is not one to take his doctor's advice lightly. When met near his home in Setiawangsa yesterday, his lunch was confined to slices of bread and tomato soup.

"I'm already missing my wife's cooking," he said as he managed a half-smile, clearly still smarting from discomfort on his lower jaw.

Holding our ground

On Sunday, Zahir, his wife and four daughters were supposed to make a quick detour to the protest venue at Petronas headquarters in Kuala Lumpur City Centre, before rushing off to a wedding reception elsewhere.

Zahir was standing near the main group of protesters where speeches by activists and politicians were on-going. His wife, who was with their daughters - all in their 20s - watched the proceedings from afar, near the road shoulder of Jalan Ampang.

He lamented that repeated warnings from the police that "force" (kekerasan) would be used to disperse the crowd was drowned out by the sound system being used by the protesters.

After the police's three-minute warning had expired, water gushed out from the water cannon truck.

"This time round, most of us (protesters) held our ground. It just shows how the situation (involving the price hikes) had gotten worse, so more people are determined to make their voices heard," said Zahir, who is among the protest's organising committee.

Losing consciousness

He believed that the defiance shown by the protesters prompted the riot police to be more aggressive in dispersing the crowd.

Even a crowd of women and children, including Zahir's wife and daugthers, were targeted despite being quite a distance from the actual crowd of protesters.

Instinctively, Zahir rushed to their aid by putting himself between the riot police and the group, while repeatedly turning around and urging the police to slow down in hope of buying time for the others to flee.

He then tried to use his body to block the police's advancement once again after seeing one of his daughters being roughly pushed with a riot shield.

After being surrounded by several riot police, Zahir was shoved with riot shields with such a force that he lost balance and fell to the ground.

"By then, I had become a convenient target. But I only remember being kicked twice as I became semi-conscious after being held down and kicked on the jaw.

"I knew the kicks were coming. I could feel and hear the loud thuds. But maybe... I was protected from the pain by the grace of god. It's like a sign that when you fight for a just cause you will be protected by the Almighty," said Zahir, a staunch Muslim.

To prove his point, he said that he has no major injuries on his body, other than his jaw, despite pictures showing him brutally kicked from many directions.

Supportive family

Has the incident prompted his family to reconsider Zahir's participation in future rallies and politics?

"No. There was no instances from my children and wife mentioning that we should stop. In fact, my children had encouraged me to attend future protests," he said, again with a smile.

On why he held on to a booklet on the fuel hike, distributed during the protest, throughout the beatings, Zahir said that it was his responsibility to do so.

"We want to show that we have a strong basis to gather there that day and convey a message to the public. We were there to educate the people," said the 2004 candidate for Bukit Antarabangsa state seat in Selangor.

As a final word, Zahir would also like to see family members of police personnel engaged in Sunday's violent spree discourage such actions from being carried out again.

"After all, we were championing their causes as well," said the former general manager of a British-owned water company.

The Sunday protest took a violent turn when about 100 personnel from the Federal Reserve Unit, charged at protesters who were walking away from the area outside KLCC after being showered by water cannons.

At least five victims, including Zahir, have made their ordeal public by lodging a complaint with the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) yesterday morning.

Despite drawing strong criticism from NGOs, opposition parties and the public, the police are still justifying their actions as "self defence" and that " minimum force " was applied on protestors.

Photos by Andrew Ong, last three are from Jeff Ooi's Screenshot