20 Charity houses were raided, 402 children were rescued
KUANTAN: A total of 402 children were rescued as a result of police raids on 20 charity houses believed to belong to a religious business group around Selangor and Negeri Sembilan on Wednesday.
Sinar Harian reported that the victims consisted of 201 boys and 201 girls aged one to 17 years old who were suspected of being victims of exploitation, neglect and persecution at premises believed to belong to a religiously motivated business group.
Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said, in the Global Ops operation which was carried out from 6 to 11 in the morning, his side also arrested 171 individuals consisting of teaching staff, dormitory custodians and study center chairmen.
According to him, the detained individuals consisted of 66 men and 105 women aged 17 to 64 years.
“All rescued child victims will undergo an initial health check-up at the facility provided before the documentation process will be carried out at the Police Training Center, Kuala Lumpur.
“This process is expected to take 14 days, but is subject to other requirements,” he said at a special press conference at the Pahang Police Contingent Headquarters (IPK) here on Wednesday.
Razarudin said that the raid was carried out following a police report received on 2 September last about a case of child neglect, sexual abuse and obscene acts against children at a charity home in Port Dickson.
“Acting on information the police have opened investigation papers which are four in Negeri Sembilan and four more in Selangor.
“In the case in Port Dickson, six suspects in their 20s to 40s were arrested, consisting of five men and one woman,” he said.
He added that, among the modus operandi used, the victim was exposed to the way of touching before being touched by the guard and forced to touch other residents.
“Victims who are not healthy are prevented from getting treatment at the clinic until they are in a critical condition
“The group is also believed to be using children and religious sentiments to solicit sympathy in order to get donations
“The victim was injured using a heated object as a punishment for a mistake made in addition to touching the victim’s body under the pretext of performing Islamic medical treatment,” he said.
He said, the direction of the ‘OP Global’ investigation so far refers to offenses under the Children’s Act 2001 [Act 611]; Sexual Offenses Against Children Act 2017 [792]; Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 [Act 670] Penal Code [Act 574] and other laws currently in force.
“In the period from 2011 to last September 7, the police have received 41 police reports against the business group including 19 in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan (13), Perlis (1), Kedah (3), Penang (2), Kuala Lumpur (1) ), Melaka (1), Johor (5), Pahang (2), Terengganu (1) and Sabah (1),” he said.
Meanwhile, Razarudin said, based on preliminary investigations, the police have so far detected no politicians involved in the group’s activities.