Ethnic Indian protesters clash with Malaysian police

Police used tear gas and water cannons to crush a banned rally by more than 10,000 ethnic minority Indians yesterday.

In a rare street clash that exposed Muslim-majority Malaysia's deep racial divisions, slogan-shouting protesters hurled water bottles and stones at police, who chased them through streets surrounding the famous Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur and doused them repeatedly with tear gas and chemical-laced water for more than eight hours. Some demonstrators carried pictures of Mohandas Gandhi and banners that read: "We want our rights."

There is increasing anger among ethnic Indians, who make up 8 per cent of the country's 27million population, that they still make up the poorest sections of Malaysian society, 50 years after independence from Britain. The rally – which was deemed illegal on Friday – was meant to support a £2,000bn lawsuit filed in London in August by the Hindu Rights Action Force, a Malaysian rights group, demanding that Britain compensate Malaysian Indians for bringing their ancestors to the country as "indentured laborers" and exploiting them.

"This gathering is unprecedented," said protest leader P. Uthayakumar. "This is a community that can no longer tolerate discrimination."

But Samy Vellu, the government's top ethnic Indian politician, denounced the protest. "We do not support street demonstrations," he said. "We have been working within the system to resolve the problems faced by the Indian community."