KUALA LUMPUR: Police fired three times the amount of tear gas at the Bersih 3.0 rally for free and clean elections on April 28, compared with the Bersih 2.0 rally last year.

The Home Ministry said 909 tear gas canisters and 58 tear gas grenades were used against the protesters in this year’s rally.

The government suffered a loss of RM1.8 million from the rally, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said in a written reply to Fong Po Kuan (Batu Gajah-DAP).

During the Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9 last year, 262 tear gas canisters were used to disperse the protesters, he said.

In a statement, PKR vice-president N Surendran said the home minister and inspector general of police (IGP) should take responsibility for police violence at Bersih 3.0.

“We urge the home minister and IGP to take responsibility for the actions by members of the police force on July 9 that were against the law, and we urge the attorney-general to charge the officers involved irrespective of rank and standing,” he said, according to a report on the Keadilan Daily website.

In another report, Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad, who received six stitches on his head when he was hit by a tear gas canister during the July 9 rally last year, said that he may sue the police over the incident.

“We will wait and I will get legal advice and I will weigh the option of suing the police,” he said when contacted by The Edge Financial Daily.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, June 12, 2012.