KUANTAN, SEPT 11 – A total of 171 individuals were arrested after the police raided 20 charity houses located around Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, to help investigate the case of a company accused of exploiting children and religion.
Malaysian Police Chief, Tan Sri Razarudin Husain, said through the Global Op which was carried out from around 6 to 11 in the morning, those arrested consisted of 66 men and 105 women who were on duty as caretakers, ustaz and chairmen of the charity house, all of whom were aged around 17 to 64 years.
Following the arrest, he said his party had rescued 402 individuals, 201 males and 201 females aged one to 17 years, respectively, who will be placed at the Kuala Lumpur Police Training Center. “These rescued children will be health screened and documented and it is expected to take up to 14 days, as it involves many individuals,” he said at a press conference at the Pahang Contingent Police Headquarters, today.
Razarudin said, from the intelligence information received, the victim was taught to circumcise and then the victim was circumcised by the guardian and forced to circumcise the other child occupants.
In addition, he said that victims who are not healthy are also not allowed to seek treatment at the clinic until they are in a critical condition, besides the suspect using hot objects to injure the victim as a sign of punishment for the mistakes made.
“Child victims and religious sentiments are used to collect sympathy in order to get donations, besides they also touch the victim’s body under the pretext of Islamic treatment. The initial investigation found that these children are not orphans, when they are born only until they are one or two years old they will be placed in the charity home with the parents’ knowledge. The activity of indoctrinating children using a religious approach is a bad thing,” he said.
Razarudin also did not rule out the possibility that the death case also occurred as a result of the syndicate’s activities, but would conduct a detailed investigation into the matter in addition to informing that from 2011 until September 7, more than 40 police reports had been made against the company.
“There are former members who made a report but were threatened until they withdrew the report,” he said, adding that no political party was involved in the company’s activities for now. – Named
