An informal meeting between grassroots leaders of Gombak Umno and PAS a day before PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's ceramah in the locality failed to prevent violence between the supporters of the two sides.

A text message urging Umno Youth members to stop Anwar from entering Gombak was widely circulated in the locality area two days before the ceramah, Gombak PAS chief Salehuddin Nasir said yesterday.

Salehuddin showed Malaysiakini the text message, which reads: "...I hope that all of you (Umno branches) can deploy as many youth members as you can to stop his (Anwar) arrival in Gombak Utara. Gombak Utara is our pride! Let us flood the night ceramah!"

This, Salehuddin said, led him to meet with Gombak Umno deputy chief Said Anuar Said Ahmad in Taman Seri Gombak on Monday morning, a day before the Pakatan Rakyat ceramah, to defuse any tension as a result of the ceramah being held in the locality.

NONE "I asked Said Anuar to look into matter seriously. He said he was not aware of the text message and asked me to cool down," he said.

Said Anuar, he added, did not commit himself to preventing any untoward incident during the Tuesday night ceramah and instead, after the incidents of violence, blamed Pakatan supporters for starting them.

However, Salehuddin conceded, he did not request Said Anuar to promise that Umno members would not to create provocation as he expected them to "behave well under the laws".

Despite this, he said, he lodged a police report on Monday, urging the police to take preemptive action.

Contacted later, Said Anuar claimed that he met Salehuddin "by coincidence" on that day and informed the latter that Umno Youth members would also attend the ceramah.

"I asked him (Salehuddin) not to worry. We will go but we will not disturb," Said Anuar replied by a text message.

'Pakatan started fracas'

He said Pakatan supporters started the fracas with the throwing of stones and water bottles to chase Umno supporters away from the venue.

However, Salehuddin claimed that a group of Umno members was spotted setting up ceramah stage opposite the Pakatan stage on that bloody night.

"We got the Unit Amal members present to prevent any undesired incident from taking place. However, the Umno Youth members started to charge at our human barrier and throw stones at us."

NONE Two Pakatan supporters and one from Umno were injured in the scuffle during Anwar's ceramah.

Salehuddin lodged a second police report at Gombak Setia yesterday, urging the police to investigate the violence.

Malay daily Utusan Malaysia reported today that the injured Umno supporter, Faizaruddin Mustafha, received nine stitches on the forehead in a stone attack.

Faizaruddin, who is Umno Gombak Batu 10 branch leader, lodged a police report at Gombak police station at 2am. His photograph was posted on Twittter by Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar.

NONE Utusan in its report also quoted Gombak Umno Youth chief Megat Zulkarnain Omardin ( right ) as saying that Umno Youth members were, at the time of Anwar's ceramah, holding an election workshop opposite Pakatan ceramah site.

"We don't agree to Anwar's ceramah being held in front of our election operations room... the place is too narrow to hold a talk.

"We expressed our peaceful protest from our place, not at their (Pakatan's) place," Megat Zulkarnain is quoted as saying.

The opposition, he added, started the provocation by throwing stones, buckets of water and pots on them and injured the Umno Youth leader.