160 arrested in Hindraf's 'rose' rally - The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: Police arrested 160 Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) supporters who took part in its “rose” campaign Dataran Merdeka area Saturday and nine of them, including a woman have been held for further investigations.

They will be brought to court for remand orders to be made against them Sunday.

Of the 160 arrested, 138 were men and 22 were women, including an 11-year-old girl. The girl was later released.

The Hindraf supporters with children holding roses had planned to gather outside the Parliament building and the leaders wanted to hand over a memorandum on improving the lot of the Indian community.

Police had earlier declared the gathering illegal and set up roadblocks and closed the road leading to the Parliament building. The road closures resulted in Hindraf changing their destination to the Suhakam office at Jalan Raja Laut.

Police started to fire tear gas canisters and spray water cannons at 9.20am on Jalan Raja Laut after repeated warnings for the crowd to disperse went unheeded.

Many of the supporters scattered to the Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Masjid Jamek areas. Then the police began detaining those who refused to budge.

[More at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/2/16/nation/20080216221638&sec=nation]