By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : The Perak state headquarters in Ipoh of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) led by Malaysian Indian lawmaker Karpal Singh was attacked by two people with Molotov cocktails in what media reports termed an attempt to burn down the building.
Senior Assistant Commissioner (II) Ismail Yatim, the Perak Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief, said the case was being investigated as mischief by fire with intent to destroy a building.
Homemade bombs were hurled at the Perak DAP headquarters here Thursday but did not cause major damage to the building.
Instead, a wooden board put up at the glass windows of the office caused the explosives to bounce off and land on the road, The Star newspaper said Friday.
Perak DAP chairman Ngeh Koo Ham told The Sun newspaper that he believed the incident was politically motivated.
Calling the attack “politically-motivated”, he added: “It is an attack on democracy and violence cannot be condoned”.
He urged the police to catch the culprits, saying such unlawful behaviour should not be allowed.
Ipoh Barat’s Indian origin MP M. Kula Segaran said additional security measures such as closed circuit camera TV around the building and security guards will be introduced to prevent such incidents in the future.
Singh, 68, a lawyer and prominent opposition MP, has been in the news for being charged with sedition after he criticised the sultan of Perak, who is the state’s constitutional head and is a member of the royal family.
Twenty police cases have been filed against him and police say an inquiry against him is almost complete, The Sun reported.
Singh denies having insulted the sultan. He has said that he only questioned the propriety of the sultan stalling the transfer of a senior Perak official.
A constitutional head should not engage in transfers and appointments of an official, Singh had argued.
The mufti (interpreter of Islamic jurisprudence) of Perak has, however, said Singh’s statement was tantamount to insulting Islam since the sultan was also the religious head.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad had disapproved of Singh’s statement and called for early completion of the probe against him by the attorney general.
However, the government has denied that it was singling out Singh.
CID Commissioner Mohamad Bakri Zinin told the media Thursday that the government was also probing allegations of seditious remarks made against the royal heads of Terengganu and Perlis states by Rosol Wahid and 22 legislators belonging to the ruling United Malay Nmational organisation (Umno).