Cases of a large number of children being held hostages are very rare occurances in Malaysia.
Infact as far as my memory serves me, no children hostages situation has ever occured in Malaysia in modern times.
Infact to the best of my memory, there are 4 most infamous hostages situations that happened in Malaysia in the past years, and none of them involved children.
The 4 infamous hostages incidents that shook the world that ever happened in Malaysia were :
Case 1. July 2nd, 2000 > The Al Maunah terrorist group who stole huge cache of military firearms weaponry including 97 M16 assault rifles, two Steyr AUG rifles, four General Purpose Machine Guns or GPMGs, six light machine guns or LMG, five grenade launchers and 9,095 rounds of 5.56mm and 60 rounds of 40mm ammunitions and barricaded themselves at Bukit Jenalek, Sauk, Perak.
The group held 4 people hostages including 2 police personnels Sergeant Mohd Shah Ahmad and Detective Corporal Sanghadevan, a civilian Jaafar Puteh and an army personnel, Trooper Matthews anak Medan. In the end, Sagadevan and Matthews were slain by the terrorist.
Al Maunah leader, Mohamed Amin Mohamed Razali, was sentenced to death and hanged at the Sungai Buloh prison in Selangor on August 4, 2006. His 3 right hand-men, Zahit Muslim, Jamaluddin Darus, and Jemari Jusoh were hanged a week earlier. 16 other members of the militant group were given life sentences.
Case 2. The twin incidents that shocked the world, happened off the east coast of Sabah, near the Philippines border. The militant group based in Southern Philippines, Abu Sayyaf double kidnappings of hostages off Sipadan Island, Sabah on April 2000 and Pandanan Island, Sabah in September 2000.
In the April 2000, Sipadan kidnapping, the Abu Sayyaf guerillas led by Commander Robot aka Ghalib Andang and Mujib Susukan, took 21 hostages, including 10 foreign tourists from France, South Africa, Germany, Finland and Lebanon and 9 Malaysian resort workers, a policeman and a Filipino dive master, Rolland Ullah aka Rambo.
The hostages were taken to an Abu Sayyaf base in Jolo, Southern Philippines by boats. After months of negotiations and playing cat and mouse games with the Philippines military, The Abu Sayyaf released all hostages in stages after ransoms payments were made including by the Libyan government.
The last remaining hostage, Rolland Ullah was only released / freed in 2003.
Among the Malaysians hostages were Divemasters Fong Kin Yen, Sabah wildlife rangers Balakrishnan Nair, Basilius Jim, Zulkarnain and Francis Masangkim.
In the Pandanan island kidnapping, 3 other Malaysians were kidnapped indlucing one mr George and one Mr Jongkinoh and a Chinese guy, but eventually rescued by the Philippines military. After that most of the Abu Sayyaf hierachy were annihilated by combined, air, sea and land assaults by the Philippines Armed Forces.
Case 3. The Pudu Jail hostage incident, Kuala Lumpur - Jimmy Chua, real name Chua Chap Seng, was a Singaporean crime ringleader and a former member of the Singaporean police force. He was thrown into Pudu Prison in Kuala Lumpur for murdering police constable Mohd Yasin Ismail in 1984.
On 17 October 1986, Jimmy and his six henchmen took 2 people hostages. They were known as skin specialist Dr Radzi bin Jaafar and medical technologist Abdul Aziz Abdul Majid who were on duty inside the prison at that material time.
The ordeal was over after 5 days. On 22 October 1986, the 2 hostages were rescued and Jimmy Chua and his gangs were captured. The whole operation was over without even a single gun shot being fired. The lightning quick police special forces stormed the prison while Jimmy was sleeping and captured them in a surprise attack.
Jimmy and his gang were sentenced to death under Section 3 (1) of the Kidnapping Act 1961 that carries a maximum death penalty upon conviction. They were hung inside Pudu Prison on 10 October 1989.
Case 4 > On 5th August 1975, a terrorist group, the Japanese Red Army, JRA stormed the American International Insurance, AIA building in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur and took 53 people hostages for 3 days or 79 hours to be exact. The hostages included the United States consul and the Swedish chargé d'affaires.
The JRA gunmen demanded and won the release of five imprisoned comrades who were jailed in Japan. The gunmen released all hostages and then flew with their freed comrades to Libya, into the safe hands of Moammar Gaddafi.
Now the latest hostages situation in Malaysia happened today Thursday, 7th July, 2011 and no militant elements were involved.
The kidnapper happened to be a drug addict.
Malaysians were jolted by the shocking news of 30 kindergarden children and 4 teachers at Pusat Jagaan Serikids, in Muar, Johor, being held hostage since morning 7th July 2011 by a mentally deranged drug addict man, armed with a hammer and a "parang" or a large knife.
That unexpected incident happened at approximately 9.30am Thursday, 7th July 2011.
The hostage taker initially told police negotiators to give him a gun or he would kill the kids.
However, after local psychiatrist Dr Lau Keen Lee spoke to the man from outside of the double-storey bungalow, he appeared to calm down.
"He is hungry now and wants some food," Dr Lau said, adding that the man and the children were on the second floor.
While someone went to get the food, two Special Actions Forces (UTK) trucks rolled into the compound.
Meanwhile, Muar traffic police chief ASP Suhaimi Ahmad told anxious parents and members of the media to wait outside the compound of the bungalow.
He said that too many people milling about the compound might spook the man.
Meanwhile, UTK blocked the road leading to Pusat Jagaan Kanak-Kanak Serikids at around 2pm.
Crowds of people have gathered around the road. The suspect has locked all the doors of the bungalow.
Two ambulances are on standby outside the kindergarten.
Police officers have been negotiating with the suspect for hours.
There are still no reports of any children being harm or injured. The police have barricaded the area.
According to the Star online, at 3.45pm, police shot teargas into the compound and entered the building.
In the end, Malaysian police freed all the 30 kindergarten children and four teachers.
State deputy police chief Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman told reporters that the man was in critical condition after he was hit by a single shot in the head.
At 9.15 pm, the man was declared dead.
"All the 30 children, aged between three and five years, and their four teachers are safe," he said, adding that they were sent to the hospital for a check up.
The identity of the hostage taker and his motive remains uknown at this moment but the police is expected to give an official statement, soon.
Pity those kids aged between 3 to 5 years old and those teachers who had to endure that frightening and terrifying moments for 6 hours.
They should be treated by child psychiatrists in order to forget those harrowing moments.
Congratulations to the Malaysian Police too for their swift action and in ensuring the safety of those kids.
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4 comments:
Thank to GOD almighty nobody hurt... that place is near to my friend house... Damm that man...
Anonymous.. yes Thanks to Almighty GOD that no children and techers were hurt.. According to latest news reports, the hammer-wielding man has died in the hospital at 9.15 pm, Thursday 7th July 2011, 6 hours after being hit by a single shot to the head by police. He was a drug addict and was involved in many kindergarden break-ins before.
He got what he deserved, I hope there's no more horrors like this in the future.
Rungitom... that guy is already dead. shot once inthe head by unit tindakan khas.... luckily no children were harmed during the 6 hours tense standoff.... kiondergarden should take heed of this and improve security... who knows other mentally deranged persons are out there... waiting to strike at kids...
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