Six people, including two women, who were participants of a 'Merdeka walk' in Melaka to celebrate the upcoming National Day were arrested by police this morning.

Three of them were arrested when they were on their way to attend the event today, which was organised by opposition party Keadilan.

Maznah Ahamad, Tan Chee Hooi and Yusriah Yussof, said to be reformasi supporters, were nabbed at the Ayer Keroh highway toll plaza and taken to Tengkera police station to have their statements recorded.

The other three arrested were Kamaruddin Ibrahim, Badrul Hisham Aziz and Rosli Abu, but as yet, there are no further details on them.

It was learnt that all the six met their lawyers at the police station and they were later taken to Melaka Tengah district police headquarters for further investigations.

Event delayed

Despite the arrests, some 50 participants proceeded with the event, which was delayed for an hour and a half.

They walked for a distance of three kilometers from the Bandar Melaka bus station to the Bandar Kaba police station instead of the Mahkota Parade shopping complex as planned initially.

More than 100 police personnel and several Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) trucks and water canons were stationed along the entire route of the walk.

Upon arriving at the Bandar Kaba police station, the participants lodged a report against the Home Affairs minister and Sungai Buloh prison director-general over the allegedly unfair treatment of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim who has been denied overseas surgery for a back ailment.

The report was lodged by lawyer Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, Melaka Keadilan Youth chief Azman Abdul Majid and former ISA detainee Abdul Ghani Haron.

Following this, the crowd dispersed at around noon.

Police had earlier warned the public not to take part in the event as the organisers had not been given a written approval.

Melaka Tengah district police chief Mohamed Salim Abbas reportedly said that stern action would be taken against those who defied the order.

Highway arrest

Sources told malaysiakini that Maznah, Tan and Yusriah were travelling together from Kuala Lumpur to take part in the walk but were stopped and arrested immediately after their car exited the Ayer Keroh highway toll point at about 10am.

Police found in the car 950 calendar-posters portraying Anwar Ibrahim and six reformasi activists recently sentenced to a two-year detention term under the Internal Security Act (ISA), among others, Keadilan leaders Tian Chua and Mohamad Ezam Mohd Noor.

Early this month, Keadilan called off a two-day event dubbed 'The People's Carnival' to have been held in Klang, Selangor after police warnings and intervention.

The organisers subsequently lodged a report with the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

Since a government imposed blanket ban on public ceramah (political talks) last month, over 40 PAS supporters who defied the order have been arrested by police.

Opposition leaders claim that the move was to prevent them from conveying their message to the masses but the authorities have denied this, insisting the measure was for national security reasons.