KUALA LUMPUR: The Turun Anwar rally took place peacefully with no untoward incidents reported, says acting Kuala Lumpur police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohamed Usuf Jan Mohamad.
“We estimated that there were about 18,000 participants.
“It went smoothly, although there was a slight disagreement initially,” he told reporters at Dataran Merdeka yesterday.
He also thanked rally participants for abiding by the rules.
DCP Mohamed Usuf said some 3,000 police officers and personnel were deployed at the rally.
As for the speeches made during the event, DCP Mohamed Usuf said police would go through them before determining whether further action was needed.
“If any of the speeches touched on 3R (royalty, religion and race) issues or are deemed to be seditious, we will take action,” he said.
He said as with any public assembly, the police would carry out a post-mortem to evaluate areas for improvement.
“We will also need to analyse the event further before deciding whether to call up the organisers,” he added.
He advised organisers to be more transparent in future to help the police understand their objectives.
“The police are in charge of the safety of any event. If there is any element that we don’t allow, it is for safety reasons,” he added.
Malaysians, he said, have the right to gather but they should do so in accordance with the law.
Yesterday, a woman in her 30s was rushed to Hospital Kuala Lumpur after experiencing breathing difficulties at around 4pm at Dataran Merdeka.
According to the Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department’s operations centre, the woman had low blood sugar.
