LANGKAWI: There was a 10 minutes standoff at the Langkawi district police headquarters when a group of 40 men confronted the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) officers when its enforcement team seized seven vehicles which were rented out without proper permit.
There was a tense moment in the 12 noon incident as the man demanded the SPAD officers to return the cars, seized during the 'Ops Parasit' near Kuah jetty earlier today.
However, the officers managed to control situation and the irked illegal car rental service operators subsequently dispersed from the scene after they were informed that the vehicles would be released back to them.
SPAD enforcement division head Datuk Che Hasni Che Ahmad in confirming the incident said the operation was part of an ongoing effort to weed out unlicensed car rental operation in the tourism island.
"We will not be intimidated by their behaviour and we are contemplating to lodge a police report against them for trying to obstruct civil servants from carrying out our duty," he said.
Che Hasni stressed that the unlicensed car rental service operators were compromising the tourist safety as their vehicles were not subjected to undergo periodical road-worthiness inspections and not having proper insurance coverage, which were compulsory for licensed car rental companies.