Kuala Lumpur, November 25
The Malaysian police today fired tear gas and water cannon to prevent thousands of ethnic Indians from taking part in a rally, declared ‘illegal’ by the government, outside the British High Commission here.
The demonstrators, who had gathered outside the Petronas Twin Towers were beaten and dragged into trucks by the police, witnesses said.
The rally call had been given by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), a non-government agency, which had held the British government responsible for bringing Indians to the then Malaya as ‘indentured labourers’ and exploited them. It had claimed a compensation of $4 trillion.
Thousands of ethnic Indians, a few carrying photos of Mahatma Gandhi, had assembled before dawn near the Petronas towers. Several of them had gathered in the Batu Caves, a limestone cave Murugan temple on the city's outskirts.
The government had warned of a stiff action if the protesters went ahead with their plans to assemble before the British High Commission at Jalan Ampang here to present a memorandum signed by over 1,00,000 ethnic Indians.
— PTI
