At a press conference outside the district police headquarters, the division’s deputy chief Shariff Jeev claimed the article contained seditious content that would incite Malaysians.

“We urge the police to investigate the article and the planned protests under Section 124B of the Penal Code (for committing an activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy) or any appropriate law,” he said.

When asked if he wanted the authorities to prevent the rally from going ahead, he said it should be allowed to proceed if it was held in an “appropriate way”.

Shariff nonetheless claimed that the protest planned for July 26 could become a threat to the country’s peaceful way of life and its parliamentary democracy.

“So far, 52 police reports have been lodged throughout the country, including in Sabah and Sarawak. Today alone six reports were filed”, he added.

Putrajaya PKR information chief Hafiz Osman called for the protest to be held somewhere else instead of Dataran Merdeka to prevent it from “spiralling out of control”.

“We do not want the protesters to provoke others. We hope the police will be able to cordon off the area.”

The rally organised by Perikatan Nasional aims to push for Anwar’s resignation as prime minister.

Last week, over 300 rallied in Shah Alam for the same cause. The smaller rally was held to promote the Dataran Merdeka protest.