A guard post at the plantation is burned by the villagers.
SIMUNJAN: A group of residents from several villages here acted violently by burning guard posts, motorcycles and equipment of a plantation company in protest following the plantation management’s actions of preventing them from using the plantation road yesterday.
According to sources, the villagers were unhappy after the plantation company decided to cut off the road in the plantation which the villagers claimed they used as access to their farms.
After finding out that the road had been dug out by the plantation company to cut it off, the villagers then decided to meet the plantation company’s management to ask for the road to be reconnected.
The group was however disappointed after their efforts to meet the plantation company’s management failed, claiming that the management refused to meet them around 10.30am.
“Things got heated up when their request for a meeting was not met by the plantation company’s management and they subsequently started burning the company’s guard posts, motorcycles, equipment and other things,” added the sources.
A few police officers and officials from the Simunjan IPD were dispatched to the location to control the situation.
State Crime Investigation Department chief SAC Denis Leong Soon Kuai confirmed the incident and said police were investigating the incident under Sections 147, 427 and 435 of the Penal Code.
“Early investigation found that the incident was due to a dispute over land and it is learned that the court had previously ruled that the land belonged to the plantation. Hence, the plantation company decided to close the road which caused the anger of the villagers,” he said when contacted here yesterday.
Leong pleaded to the public not to speculate on the incident as it could disrupt police investigations.
“Any information on the incident should be channelled to the police for further investigation,” he said.