Low Yat: IGP orders police to arrest blogger

Barely 24 hours after a riot broke out around the Low Yat Plaza area in Kuala Lumpur, a manhunt has been launched for the individual who is believed to be behind the incident.

Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has instructed the police to arrest a blogger known as Papa Gomo.

The blogger is being sought for spreading false information regarding the brawl at the electronics centre on Saturday.

In a civil suit in 2013, the courts had identified blogger Papa Gomo as Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris.

The Inspector-General of Police also confirmed the brawl on Saturday stemmed from a mobile phone theft incident and not a cheating incident by a mobile phone trader.

Several men then collaborated with the suspect and fabricated a story that they had been cheated.

The story then made its way on social media leading some 200 people to a protest last night, which then turned violent.

“In this case, there was no incident of cheating by the trader, only a case of two men stealing a mobile phone,” Khalid to reporters after visiting Low Yat Plaza to monitor the situation there today.

Apart from Papa Gomo, Khalid had also instructed the police to track down social media users who had spread the false information.

Meanwhile, police have so detained 19 people, all local men, in connection with the case.