Responding to statements from various quarters that doubted his rationale, IGP Mohd Fuzi Harun said he stood by his Sept 21 statement that police had received intelligence reports indicating that a militant group was planning to sabotage the beer fest.

He also said there was no reason to provide any further update on the issue pertaining to the threat of an attack of the event which was originally scheduled for this Friday and Saturday at the Publika Shopping Gallery in Kuala Lumpur.

“We will not be pressured to divulge further details to any quarters, especially those who are ignorant of the need to keep such matters confidential,” he said, in a statement today.

He added that the decision to call off the event was not based on any “perceived threats”, but on real information the police had obtained.

“The authorities did not ban the events previously because there were no such threats in past years.”

Last week, DAP’s M Kulasegaran took Fuzi to task for not providing any updates since declaring that a beer fest in Kuala Lumpur faced threats from Islamic militants.

The Ipoh Barat MP said the IGP should be more forthright over the claims he had made previously regarding the decision by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) not to allow the beer festival to go ahead.

Kula, who is also DAP national vice-chairman, said while some information must necessarily be kept confidential, this should not be the case when it involved apparent threats to events considered normal.

“The public wants to know if suspects had been detained in connection with the threat against the Better Beer Festival, and are charges being mulled against them?

Today, Fuzi said police would not compromise the public’s safety because of pressure from certain quarters with vested interests, adding that combatting militants was an uphill task.

“Preventive measures are more effective than waiting for lives to be lost first before deciding on action to be taken.

“We will not back down on this decision.”