DBKL officers and students scuffle

Tempers flared when the City Hall officers ordered the protesting students to vacate Dataran Merdeka.

(FMT) — A minor scuffle broke out between a group of university students and City Hall (DBKL) officers at Dataran Merdeka here this morning.

Tempers flared when DBKL officers had asked some 25 students, who had been camping there since Saturday demanding that the government provides free higher education, to leave.

“We didn’t want to leave and so they roughed us up. They also tore down the tent which we were camping under,” said Syukri Razab, representative from Solidarity Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM).

It is learnt that the students were camping under three tents but removed two of the tents after being told to leave. However, they insisted on leaving the last tent as a symbol of their protest.

Student Muhamad Alif Asyraf said he suffered a minor gash due to the scuffle.

“I was holding on to the tent and they pushed me aside, then a small scuffle broke out,” he told FMT

Meanwhile, fellow student Haziq Abdul Aziz said this was not the first time that DBKL had disrupted their protest.

“Yesterday, they were here twice. They took two tents and spoilt one yesterday evening. They have been keeping a close eye on us since Saturday,” added the first-year law student.

Refusing to back down, the students were now holding up banners and chanting slogans for the PTPTN (Higher Education Loan Fund) to be abolished.

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