The detention of three Kampung Buah Pala residents on Saturday night was to complete investigations into four police reports made relating to criminal threats.

Northeast police district chief ACP Azam Abdul Hamid said the three were later freed not out of any pressure from any quarter.

NONE"They were all freed on bail after their statements were taken. That was a normal investigation procedure according to the law," he said at a news conference here today.

"In law, there is no person who is immune. For the villagers of Kampung Buah Pala sympathy should not be taken as being immune," he said.

Azam also stressed that there should be no issue of the Jelutong police station being under siege but that given its location at a junction and its confined space, it gave an impression that it was surrounded when many people converged there.

Trio freed two hours later

Some 30 Kampung Buah Pala residents formed a human barricade outside the police station and forcefully stopped a police van from ferrying three detained leaders to the lock-up.

The residents' resistance was so determined that the van was forced to reverse to its parking bay.

Police personnel then took the handcuffed trio - M Sugumaran, Joseph Stephen Draviam and C Tharmaraj - back to the station.

The police released the trio on bail some two hours later.

Kampung Buah Pala has been in the news of late as the residents there are objecting to the land where they live being developed.

There have been tense standoffs between the residents and the developer's workers with the police often standing in to keep the peace.

Sept 1 has been set as the new demolition date.

- Bernama