Indonesia is seeking clarification from the Malaysian government about a report that five Indonesian citizens were killed in a shooting incident involving police in the country's Pahang state during the weekend.

"We asked our officials in Kuala Lumpur to seek an official explanation from the Malaysian government about what really happened that day as soon as we heard the news," Foreign Ministry director for Indonesian citizens protection Ferry Adamhar told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Ferry said Indonesia would also request an investigation into why the police killed the five men.

Bernama news agency reported on Monday that police shot dead six suspected robbers, who officers said intended to attack them with machetes. One policeman also died during the attack.

Five of the six suspected robbers were identified by Bernama as Indonesians.

"We will find out the identity of the men, and notify their families," Ferry said.

Pahang police chief Abdul Razak Bokhari said the suspects were killed after they attacked officers who intercepted their cars in Mentakab town on Saturday.

One officer was also killed, but it was not immediately clear whether he had been hacked to death or accidentally shot by other officers, Abdul Razak said. He said police had tracked down the suspects based on a tipoff about their activities. Police believe they were responsible for at least 69 robberies in Pahang.

The shootings occurred several months after Malaysian police arrested three Indonesians for their alleged involvement in a botched robbery near the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Subang Jaya.

That case made the TV news two weeks ago, when video surfaced of the police assaulting the men in several interrogation sessions.

Three officers were then suspended after a grainy clip showing them beating and kicking the three Indonesians was aired on national television. Several Malaysian rights groups have called for the establishment of an independent police complaints commission to curb police brutality and improve accountability. They said the incident was only the tip of the iceberg, stressing that without such an independent monitoring body, black sheep in the force would continue to resort to violence with impunity and tarnish the police's reputation.

A few months earlier, a secretly shot video of a female detainee being made to strip and perform squats, was widely circulated on mobile phones in the country, sparking a public outcry and prompting a government inquiry.

The Jakarta Post

Asia News Network

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