M.A Kalaimugilan, head of the Naam Tamilar group, said: “Don’t make the Indians as the vote bank only during the elections. After winning, the leaders stop caring about our problems.”

Speaking at a press conference, Kalaimugilan said the presence of Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa in Malaysia for an international conference amounted to an insult of Malaysian Tamils.

Rajapaksa has been accused of the massacre 100,000 ethnic Tamils during Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil war between the Sinhalese-led government and the minority Tamil community seeking an independent state in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

Kalaimugilan said: “We’ve been protesting against Rajapaksa since 2011 so that the government would not allow him to visit this country any more.”

He questioned the attitudes of political leaders, saying none of the leaders of both sides had bothered to support their cause.

On Friday and Saturday, Tamil groups held protest demonstrations outside Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, where Rajapaksa was believed to be attending a conference on Asian political parties. Members of PKR, MIC and DAP were also present.

A demonstration was also held at a Sri Lankan Buddhist temple in Sentul, where several unidenfitied men assaulted the chief monk. Kalaimugilan condemned the violence. “We have no intentions to cause chaos. A temple is a holy place. We wouldn’t want to cause trouble there.”