KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — The availability of "new evidence” on the Memali incident justifies the call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to revisit the 1985 tragedy, said the head of PAS Youth.

Muhammad Khalil Abdul Hadi, who is also the PAS president’s son, claimed the new evidence can be found in the 2011 book Memali: A Policeman Remembers by the police officer in charge of the Baling district during the 1985 incident, Tunku Muszaffar Shah Tunku Ibrahim.

"This disclosure of the former Baling OCPD is among new evidence that warrants this RCI be formed because there are still many issues that are still unresolved today,” he said in a statement published yesterday on PAS mouthpiece HarakahDaily.

He was responding to the government’s Socio-cultural Adviser Tan Sri Rais Yatim’s comments earlier this week that there was no need to form an RCI to look into the Memali incident and that such a commission should only be formed when there is new evidence or when significant matters have yet to be explained.

Rais had in his Thursday remarks noted that he was the government’s spokesman on the Memali incident as he was the information minister then, asserting that the matter has been fully explained in the government’s White Paper and by PAS leader Ibrahim Mahmud’s father.

In the same statement, Muhammad Khalil also said the need for an RCI into the Memali incident has been strengthened by the alleged inconsistent and changing statements, cross-accusations and disputing statements — even by those who are unrelated — on it.

He said the right thing to do was to have an RCI conduct an impartial and transparent investigation that should not be clouded with negative disputes or feelings of victimisation, noting that it will be an opportunity and platform for all involved to either explain or make denials.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government has not ruled out the possibility of establishing an RCI on the Memali incident, but will gauge public opinion before deciding.

In November 1985, a police force numbering 200 besieged Memali, a village in the Kedah district of Baling, targeting a controversial Islamic sect founded by PAS leader Ibrahim Mahmud, also known as Ibrahim Libya.

The incident resulted in the deaths of 14 civilians and four policemen.

The incident took place during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure as prime minister, and the issue resurfaced recently after he became the chairman for the Pakatan Harapan Opposition coalition.