Date:19/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/19/stories/2008021960061300.htm

International

Hindraf leaders freed

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: Malaysian authorities on Monday released, on police bail, all the eight detained activists of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), who were held on Saturday in connection with the group’s “roses campaign” in Kuala Lumpur. Five others, all detained leaders of Hindraf, were set free unconditionally on Sunday.

According to Hindraf spokesmen, 143 supporters of the group, who were nabbed at different places in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, were also released without any conditions. Hindraf first estimated that 300 persons were arrested.

The police had banned the “roses campaign,” citing “security concerns.” It was aimed at staging a children-led “walk” to the Parliament House to present flowers to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as a gesture of “goodwill” from the ethnic Indian minority and ask him for “justice and a fair deal” for the community.