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Saturday, 18 June 2011 03:10

KUALA TERENGGANU: Being chained, caned, slapped and flogged with electric cables -- these were among the host of ritual soul-cleansing treatment meted out to the inmates at an unlicensed private moral rehabilitation centre in Kampung Bukit Gasing in Marang here.
A police team raided the centre on Wednesday and found 11 male inmates aged between 15 and 36, who claimed to have been physically abused during the so-called religious treatment.

Four of the inmates were bound in chains when they were rescued.


State Criminal Investigation Department chief Assistant Commissioner of Police K. Manoharan said an inmate's father lodged a police report claiming that he was prevented from seeing his son at the centre.

It is learnt that most of the inmates suffered from drug-related problems, and had been sent there by their families for treatment.

However, Manoharan said the centre, run by an unregistered association called Persatuan Imam dan Islam, was unlicensed and was not registered with the Welfare Department.


"We detained the manager of the centre and two caretakers aged between 28 and 50, and remanded them for four days, and seized electrical cables and canes.

"We also raided a second centre for women located less than a kilometre at Jalan Bukit Gasing, and found two female inmates aged 23 and 24, but they were unharmed.

"We've sent them for outpatient treatment at a nearby clinic and they were later taken by the district welfare officers."