KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 — Johor
police need more information from their counterparts in Singapore and
the alleged victims before they can investigate the purported attack on
expatriates at Pulau Rawa, a senior official says.
Four Singapore-based expatriates have claimed that they were attacked
by bodyguards of a Malaysian royal family while on holiday on the Johor
island off Mersing.
“Now we don’t have the particulars of the victims — no names, no
contact numbers,” said Mersing district police chief DSP Mohd Nor Rasid.
The report in Singapore’s The Straits Times yesterday did not name any of those involved in the alleged island attack.
Mohd Nor said the police were “still waiting” for their “counterparts in Singapore” for the details of the incident.
“No police reports have been made (by the victims in Malaysia) yet,” he said.
“We’ll start investigations when a police report is lodged,” he said,
adding that the police report can be done “anywhere in Johor”.
The Straits Times reported that the men were “brutally
assaulted” within hours of arriving at Alang’s Rawa resort on Pulau
Rawa, the second attack in seven years on the island with alleged links
to Malaysian royalty.
According to the daily, the attack at the resort island left a
28-year-old British man covered with injuries and his German friend in
intensive care with bleeding in his brain.
“They grabbed my arm, surrounded me, and kicked me in my genitalia to
disable me first, then the onslaught just happened,” the man, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.
The holidaymaker said he and his three friends, all in their 20s,
were having dinner on Friday night when the Malaysian VIP arrived with
“a lot of security” and “they started playing hip-hop music.”
According to the newspaper, the two victims were invited over for
drinks including shots of tequila with the VIP, also in his 20s, and his
cousin.
“He was friendly all along and showed no hostility at all. My friend
was in mid-conversation with the VIP and his cousin when this
aggressive-looking guy just slapped him out of nowhere.
“I don’t know what the nature of the conversation was, I was at the
other end of the table, but there was something that was said that
wasn’t ‘correct’,” he said.
According to the Brit, the German was followed to the bathroom by the bodyguards.
“I went to see what was going on, but got pushed out of the bathroom.
I don’t know what happened in there, but he ran out like a bullet...
through the bar and out onto the beach then into the forested area, and
they chased him down,” he said.
He added that the remaining men then turned on him before he dashed
into the sea, swimming back to shore only after the attackers had left.
He said he then returned to his room and alerted his other friends,
but the attackers had caught up with the German man on another part of
the island.
According to the newspaper, the group were asked to leave the island
the next morning but not before they had settled their bills for the
drinks and lodging.
“We were warned by a European lady working there that it was no
longer safe. A boat was arranged for us in 10 minutes and we just left,”
the Brit said.
The Straits Times also reported that although Alang’s Rawa
confirmed that the victim and his friends were guests there, operations
manager Fairus Ahmad denied the account, as did the manager of Rawa
Safaris, the only other resort on the island.
“We have checked with all staff and management and they have
confirmed that they do not know of any incident either,” Fairus was
quoted as saying.
The newspaper reported that back in Singapore, the German man was
placed in intensive care with bleeding in his brain and was moved to a
normal ward yesterday.
In 2005, a group of six men, allegedly including a Johor prince,
gate-crashed a Brazilian couple’s wedding at Pulau Rawa and attacked
wedding guests with golf clubs and sharp objects.
Police detained four men, including a member of the Johor royal
family in his 20s, but freed all of them on bail a few days later.
No comments:
Post a Comment