A standoff between the police and anti-GST night vigil participants in front of the Kelana Jaya police station tonight. – Photo courtesy of Charles Santiago's Twitter account, March 23, 2015.More people were arrested tonight outside the Kelana Jaya police station where they had gathered for a vigil for those detained earlier today at a protest against the goods and services tax (GST).
Among those arrested, according to posts on Twitter, were student activist Adam Fistival Wilfrid and an aide to Klang MP Charles Santiago.
The vigil tonight was held to demand the release of 80 people who had staged a sit-in outside the Customs Department office in Kelana Jaya earlier today, in protest of the GST which will be implemented on April 1.
The crowd tonight gathered outside the police station watched by light strike force personnel geared in anti-riot helmets and shields.
PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil who was at the scene tweeted that police had charged the crowd in a bid to disperse people, without giving any warning.
He also said that those detained earlier today still had not been given access to lawyers. Some lawyers were in the crowd at the vigil tonight, trying to enter the police station to meet with detainees.
Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng and Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim were among the DAP federal lawmakers with the crowd.
In total, it appears that 83 people were arrested today, the latest being three at the vigil outside the police station tonight.
The earlier arrests of 79 people were made amidst a scuffle between protestors and the police at the Customs Department office, with police herding people onto black maria trucks.
Before the 79, the first arrest of the day was that of activist Khalid Ismath.
The group of more than 100 people at the Customs office earlier had staged a sit-in to wait for answers to 106 questions they submitted to Kuala Lumpur acting Customs director Abd Gani Othman.
The sit-in was led by Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and was participated by members of a coalition of civil society organisations against the consumption tax called Gabungan Bantah GST.
Police broke up the sit-in after 5pm and arrested the majority of protesters then.
From social media posts tonight, among those arrested earlier were Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) secretary-general S. Arutchelvan and retired teacher Annie Ooi, also known as "Aunty Bersih" due to her active participation in previous street rallies by the electoral reform group, Bersih 2.0.
- TMI
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