“If you come with parangs and kill the police officers, then you should be prepared to face retaliation from the police.

“The police, of course, would defend themselves,” he said in a video posted on PPBM’s Facebook account this evening.

Mahathir had said the same during the Nothing to Hide 2.0 forum on Sunday, when his answer was cut short after troublemakers threw slippers and water bottles in his direction.

Seconds later, a flare was thrown at the stage on which he was standing.

The Pakatan Harapan chairman was immediately escorted out of the Dewan Raja Muda Musa in Shah Alam where the forum had been held.

The Memali incident of 1985 saw a confrontation between police and supporters of religious teacher Ibrahim Libya.

Ibrahim, who resisted attempts by police to arrest him under the Internal Security Act, was killed along with 14 villagers and four policemen.

Meanwhile, Mahathir expressed his regret that the forum, which was meant to be an opportunity for him to answer the public’s lingering questions, had ended in a riot instead.

“This is not our culture,” he said in the four-and-a-half-minute video.

The Nothing to Hide forum was organised by PPBM Youth. Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was invited to debate Mahathir and field questions, did not show up.