Kugan's Death in Police Custody :- A Malaysian concern, not just an Indian affair (Updated)

The Kugan funeral is on the way, and I do hope that we will also see the presence of Anwar Ibrahim, Wan Azizah, Lim Kit Siang - and some of the other non-Indian political leaders. Until this time, I only seen a report that states that Teresa Kok is there. The Selangor Menteri Besar or his rep is also not there yet...

I do hope that the presence of at least the Pakatan Rakyat non-Indian leaders would prevent some from turning this from what is really a Malaysian issue into a communal issue. This is a Human Rights issue - it is about torture. It is about death in police custody - possibly even be a killing of a suspect by members of the police force.

Later, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok arrived as well.

Members of the Field Reserve Unit (FRU) and the Light Strike Force were deployed early Wednesday to Jalan Universiti to prepare for the funeral procession.

The suspected car thief had died while being questioned by police on Jan 20. - Star, 28/1/2009, Kugan funeral procession: Five arrested (Update 6)

Maybe, we will see them at the cremation site...or later on...

Updated:-

About 500 people marched behind a gold-coloured hearse carrying the body of Kugan Ananthan, who died in police custody last Tuesday.

MCPX

The procession from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) in Petaling Jaya - where the second post-mortem was conducted on Sunday - left at 2.05pm.

The crowd marched to a Hindu cemetery some 20 kilometres away in Puchong and briefly walked pass the police station in Subang Jaya where Kugan died.

The crowd, who walked in the afternoon heat and later heavy rain, took two hours and 30 minutes to reach their destination.

The funeral procession was organised to protest police brutality, the latest of which resulted in the death of Kugan, 22.

....The procession - which had grown to about 500 people - arrived at the police station at 3.20pm - about 80 minutes after the march kicked off.

They stopped for about two minutes to shout slogans against police brutality and then continued to the cemetery in Puchong where Kugan will be buried.

However, they did not conduct any rites as previously announced.

The marchers arrived at the Puchong cemetery at 4.30pm.

. - Malaysiakini, 28/1/2009 Funeral march underway, five arrested

It was also good that the police, besides arresting 5 persons including a once-HINDRAF leader, behaved themselves.

However, when faced with the angry crowd on Wednesday, the police kept calm and continued directing traffic. - Star, 28/1/2009, Kugan funeral: Crowd gets emotional (Update 7)

With regard the 5 arrested unnecessarily during a funeral of a man who is believed to have been 'killed' by police clearly shows great disrespect - and the reason seem to be was because they were wearing 'HINDRAF' T-shirts. Is it wrong now to wear such T-shirts. I just hope that these persons be immediately released, and no further action be taken against them for their actions today - the day of Kugan's funeral.

The four were wearing t-shirts depicting the outlawed Hindu Rights Action Force movement, or Hindraf. The fifth is believed to be former Hindraf coordinator R.S. Thanendran.

The first arrests, made at the UMCC entrance about 12.15pm, came after Brickfields OCPD Asst Comm Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid had made an announcement asking the crowd disperse.

He gave the crowd up till a count to 10 to disperse, failing which he said arrests would be made. He then ordered his men to arrests the two.

They have been taken to the Brickfields police headquarters for questioning, ACP Wan Abdul Bari said. - Star, 28/1/2009, Kugan funeral: Crowd gets emotional (Update 7)