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Utusan Express, Kuala Lumpur, 13 March 2003
Religious School Student Caned 25 Times Lodges Police Report
STUDENT Mohd Asrul Ahmad shows the wounds inflicted on his body after he was caned 25 times by two men at his school in Pasir Mas, Kelantan, March 12. - Utusanpix.
PASIR MAS March 12 -- A 17-year-old religious school student has lodged a police report after two men caned him 25 times with a long cane for talking to his female schoolmate as "punishment for committing vice." Pasir Mas OCPD Supt Abdul Jalil Talib confirmed that Mohd Asrul Ahmad, a Form Four student of Sekolah Menengah Agama Khairiah in Banggol Setol, Jeram Perdah and his family had lodged a report over the Monday incident.
Following the report, police have arrested two men to facilitate investigations, he told reporters.
One man, aged 33, is said to be a student of a privately-run religious school in the Patani province in southern Thailand while the other was a 23-year-old student of Kolej Darul Quran in Kuala Terengganu, he said.
He said they have been remanded to facilitate police investigations under Section 324 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous weapons. Initial police investigations revealed the men were not teachers at the religious school run by the Kelantan Islamic Foundation but were frequent visitors to the school.
Met at his house, Mohd Asrul said he sustained serious injuries after being whipped from the nape to the calf and had to seek treatment at the Lati District Hospital, near here.
"What saddens me more is that the female friend whom I met was also caned 25 times in front of me," he told Bernama.
Mohd Asrul said he met the girl, who was a Form One student at the same school, with her friend at about 5pm to hand over a school time-table which he photocopied at the school canteen.
He said his meeting with the girl was witnessed by a canteen employee.
Two hours later, a man whom he knew came to his house and invited him to take a ride on his motorcycle to the school.
He said the man, who lives near the school, took him to a classroom where another man was waiting.
Once inside the classroom, one of the men suddenly held his hand while the other whipped him 25 times using a long cane.
"When I asked why I'm being beaten, the men said I've committed vice by talking to the girl and this is the punishment," he said.
Mohd Asrul said after he was caned, the girl was also brought into the classroom and caned.
He said a canteen employee tried to intervene but the men threatened to harm him if he interfered.
After the incident, the men came to his house to apologise to his mother and pleaded with the family not to lodge a police report, he added.
© UTUSAN MELAYU (M) BHD., 55200 Kuala Lumpur.
The Straits Times, Singapore, 14 March 2003
Schoolboy talks to girl -- both whipped 25 times
KOTA BARU - A 17-year-old student of a religious school in Kelantan was whipped 25 times by two seniors for allegedly committing a sin by talking to a female student.
Both the schoolboy and his female schoolmate of Khairiah Arab Secondary school, Pasir Mas, were whipped in front of 10 students for breaching the Islamic hudud law, according to Utusan Malaysia on Wednesday.
The schoolboy, Mohamed Asrul Ahmad, lodged a police report and the two seniors were detained following the incident on Monday.
The suspects are not teachers at the school but are frequent visitors who help out.
One of them, aged 33, is said to be a student of a privately run religious school in the Patani province of southern Thailand, while the other is a 23-year-old student of Kolej Darul Quran in Kuala Terengganu, said Kelantan police.
Pasir Mas district police chief Abdul Jalil Taib said the pair had been remanded to facilitate police investigations under Section 324 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous weapons.
Mohamed Asrul said he sustained serious injuries after being whipped from the nape to the calf and had to seek treatment at the Lati District Hospital.
'What saddens me most is that the female friend whom I met was also caned 25 times in front of me,' he said.
Kelantan police have issued a warning against religious vigilantes who inflict punishment on Muslims for allegedly committing sins.
New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur, 15 March 2003
'Stop all forms of vigilante action'
By Sharifah Sakinah and Jassmine Shadique
Vigilante punitive action taken by over-zealous individuals in the name of religion should be stopped immediately, Sisters in Islam (SIS) said to-day. The call came following a recent incident in Kota Baru where a male and female student of SM Arab Khairiah Banggol were lashed in public for chatting with each other in the school canteen.
SIS executive director Zainah Anwar said the punishment inflicted on them reflected a distorted obsession with sex and morality.
"This is prevalent among Muslims who feel they have a right to take the law into their own hands in the name of religion," she said in a statement today.
Zainah said it was equally distressing that the witnesses merely applauded and counted the lashes inflicted on the students instead of trying to help them.
She also touched on the school's safety and security measures that should have been taken to prevent outsiders from entering school grounds.
In the incident on Monday, Mohd Asrul Ahmad Zakaria, 17, was dragged by two outsiders from his home to his school and flogged 25 times.
He was alleged to have committed a crime by chatting with a fellow female student in the school canteen.
The two men caught and held Asrul's outstretched arms and flogged him in the presence of 10 students who counted the beatings in unison.
The female student is said to have suffered the same punishment but she has yet to lodge a police report.
The two outsiders, aged 23 and 33, had taken upon themselves to amend the hudud in order to justify their action under the pretext of religion.
SIS also said the obsession with sex, morality and segregation between the sexes has resulted in a mindset that men and women, boys and girls are incapable of having platonic relationships and that any kind of interaction between them could only lead to maksiat (vice).
Assistant professor at the Islamic Law Department of the International Islamic University, Dr Nasimah Hussin, expressed shock over the incident.
"Chatting with a girl in public, if at all found indecent, does not fall under hudud," she said.
"In fact, it is the perpetrators who should be brought to justice for taking the law into their own hands.
"This is neither religion nor tradition but a mere violation of both Syariah and civil law," she added.
Meanwhile, Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) urged religious authorities and political leaders, irrespective of their faiths and ideologies, to condemn the act of senseless violence.
Its executive director, Ivy Josiah, said the action taken by the two men had violated the principles of human rights as students of the opposite sex should be allowed to mingle.
The incident was against the value of love and kindness for children cherished by Malaysians, she said, adding there was no place for public flogging in the country.
© New Straits Times (M) Berhad
Bernama News Agency, Kuala Lumpur, 18 March 2003
Two Claim Trial To Causing Hurt To Students
PASIR MAS, March 18 (Bernama) -- Two men pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate's Court here Tuesday to causing hurt to two students of Sekolah Menengah Agama Khairiah, Jeram Perdah, by publicly caning them. Wan Rosly Wan Husin, 33, and Mohamed Azman Ibrahim, 23, are alleged to have caused hurt to Mohamed Asrul Ahmad, 17, in a classroom of the secondary religious school at about 7pm on March 10.
They are also charged with causing hurt to Suria Ismail, 16, at the same place at about 7.15pm the same day.
Magistrate Ahmad Bazli Bahruddin allowed bail of RM2,000 each and fixed April 29 and 30 for mention.
Wan Rosly, of Kampung Lubok Kawah, Alor Pasir, and Mohamed Azman, of Kampung Pondok, Banggol Setol, here, both students, are charged under section 323 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum one year's jail, or RM2,000 fine, or both, on conviction.
They were represented by counsel Muhammad Hasif Hasan while deputy public prosecutor Azmi Ariffin prosecuted. -- BERNAMA
Follow-up: 30 April 2003 - Jail for duo who caned two students in Kelantan
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