Pro-Anwar demo fails to get response

(Bernama) — The huge gathering that supporters of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had predicted for the demonstration they planned at the National Mosque after Friday prayers yesterday failed to materialise.

They had expected members and allies of 80 non-governmental organisations to take part in the demonstration, but only several dozens of people joined them.

The demonstrators led by Kedah PAS Youth information chief Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid refused to surrender banners they carried to police when requested to do so.

They then went to the nearby office of Jawi, the Federal Territory Islamic Department, to hand over a memorandum of protest.

Ten of them were allowed to enter the office to present the memorandum, which was received by Jawi deputy director Abdul Murat Abdul Wahab.

According to the organisers, the demonstration was to protest against the taking of “sumpah laknat” (oath that can become a curse) by businessman Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah at a mosque in Sentul last Friday.

Eskay took the oath swearing that the man featured in a sex video was Anwar.

Later, Mohd Azmi and a group calling themselves “Malaysian People’s Solidarity Against State Terrorism” held a demonstration in front of the US Embassy here.

Mohd Azmi said the demonstration was to condemn the murder of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a unilateral US military operation in Pakistan on May 2.

The killing of Osama, his wife, son and an unknown person was an act of cowardice, he said.

The operation was against international law and was “an act of aggression on a foreign land by a foreign force,” he told reporters before handing a memorandum to the embassy.