KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — The national police chief was lying when he claimed that protesters at the #KitaLawan rally last night had acted violently, rally organisers said today, accusing the police instead of beating up the rally-goers.

The #KitaLawan secretariat cited video recordings of the police’s allegedly violent disruption of the Dataran Merdeka sit-in, insisting that the rally participants were there peacefully.

“This clearly proves that the IGP has lied and tried to incite the public on Twitter that the youths of #KitaLawan acted violently,” the #KitaLawan group said in a statement, referring to IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.

“The evidence at the scene clearly shows that the youths that were gathering peacefully were roughly treated. His statement that called #KitaLawan an illegal group is only intended to cover up the misuse of his power and to deny the voices of the youth,” the group added.

In a Twitter post a few hours ago, Khalid had written: “@PDRMsia malam tadi telah tangkap 6 Ahli Kump Haram KitaLawan di DM yg telah mengganas dgn membelasah P’kuasa DBKL. Ini kah p’himpunan Aman?”

[Translation: @PDRMsia last night captured six members of the illegal group KitaLawan at DM that had acted violently by beating up DBKL enforcement: Is this a Peaceful assembly?]

The #KitaLawan secretariat, however, denied Khalid’s “wild accusation” that the youths at the peaceful sit-in protest at Dataran Merdeka had acted violently towards the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) enforcers.

The group said a video recording by an eyewitness showed that the police used force and violence, including beating up and roughly pulling rally participants.

Another video recording showed the participants asking unknown individuals that are believed to be plainclothes policemen to show their authorisation identity cards, #KitaLawan’s secretariat said.

But these unknown individuals refused to do so and acted violently by beating Teja assemblyman Chang Lih Kang and also beating up civilians who were trying to protect him and Simpang Pulai assemblyman Tan Kar Hing, it added.

Six protesters including the two Perak state lawmakers were subsequently nabbed after a brief clash, with an injured participant, Chee Chu Sang, being brought to the Hospital Kuala Lumpur for treatment before being sent to the police lock-up.

According to the group, its lawyers were informed that the six were detained under Sections 186 and 188 of the Penal Code and will be brought to the Duta Court at 2pm today for remand hearing.

Those sections of the law prohibit obstructing public servants from discharging their public functions or orders.

Earlier last night, DBKL officers reportedly arrived at Dataran Merdeka to ask the sit-in participants to clear out by midnight, but the event organisers refused and insisted they had the right to occupy the venue.

The police and DBKL later came and raided the venue after midnight, which subsequently led to the arrests.

Today, the #KitaLawan group declared that its planned mass rally tomorrow will carry on as usual, also inviting the crowd to attend a ceramah against the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at Dataran Merdeka tonight.

In the run-up to tomorrow’s event, the #KitaLawan movement had planned a series of sit-ins and other events on a number of issues, including a campaign to seek Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s release from prison and a #PecatIGP campaign for Khalid’s sacking.

Since Anwar’s sodomy conviction and five-year jail sentence last month, Khalid and his police force have engaged in an apparent crackdown on dissent by lawyers, politicians and social activist movements.

Police have arrested at least 11 people over previous #KitaLawan rallies.