KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (News Agencies) - Malaysian police Wednesday said another two ethnic Indians were attacked in a poor area where recent ethnic clashes left six dead.
The first victim was walking alone early Wednesday morning when two men on a motorcycle rode by and slashed him on the head and body, said Selangor state police chief Nik Ismail Nik Yusuf.
The assailants then attacked the second victim who was walking along the same road before fleeing, he was quoted as saying by the national Bernama news agency.
The two Indians have been taken to hospital and were in stable condition, he said.
Nik Ismail said police have started investigations to identify the assailants and have intensified patrols to prevent the clashes from spreading to other areas.
He advised the public not to panic over the latest incident as the situation was under control.
Five Indians and an Indonesian were killed during four-days of violence which broke out March 8 between Indians and Malays in poor areas of Petaling Jaya town, west of Kuala Lumpur. Fifty people were injured and around 230 arrested.
The Bar Council, which represents some 10,000 lawyers, earlier Wednesday voiced concern over the incident.
It urged the government to immediately set up an independent royal commission of inquiry to investigate the cause that led to the "sudden outburst of violence" and look into problems arising from the incident.
The commission should move with "all deliberate speed to complete this inquiry and to make public its findings and recommendations", council chairman Mah Weng Kwai said in a statement.
Mah said the council was happy that police did not invoke the Internal Security Act (ISA), which provides detention without trial in its probe.
But it maintained that the ISA - a relic of British colonial times used to combat a 12-year communist insurrection - was an "oppressive piece of legislation" that must be repealed as soon as possible, he added.
Opposition parties and non-governmental organizations have already called for an independent inquiry.
The government over the weekend threatened to use the ISA against opposition parties accused of exploiting the ethnic unrest.
Police are already investigating opposition leaders for sedition after they cast doubt on the official death toll of six.
