Police focusing search in Selangor

MANJUNG: The search for 5-year-old Sharlinie Mohd Nashar is still concentrated in Selangor, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said.

The search is in its third week.

In the meantime, he said police had stepped up intelligence work to trace the girl.

Musa said police believed Sharlinie, abducted while playing at a kindergarten not far from her Taman Medan house in Petaling Jaya, was still in the country.

"The search is now concentrated in Selangor but will be extended based on information received," he said after a visit to the RM53 million Manjung district police headquarters here yesterday.
The construction of the complex, comprising 10 administrative and 23 accommodation blocks, was completed in November last year.

Also present was state police chief Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah.

Musa said police were disappointed that some people regarded Sharlinie's disappearance as a joke by sending false information.

"Please remember there is now a family undergoing a hard time and we need information that can lead to the girl's whereabouts."

On efforts by Sharlinie's family to engage the services of bomoh to help find the missing girl, Musa said police did not have any objection.

"It is another form of assistance. But we cannot rely on such information to find the girl."

A group of bomoh visited the girl's family last Tuesday and said that Sharlinie was believed to have been hidden in a flat located within a 5km radius from her home.

Petaling Jaya district police chief Assistant Commissioner Arjunaidi Mohamed, however, said checks of flats around the area had turned up nothing.

On whether Sharlinie could have been taken out the country by sea, Musa said it was impossible for the authorities to patrol the entire country's shoreline.

On another matter, Musa said that all new police stations must be disabled-friendly while existing ones had been directed to provide facilities for the group.

Teen arrested for bid to extort RM5,000 demand via mobile

PETALING JAYA: A 16-year-old schoolboy has been arrested for trying to extort RM5,000 from Sharlinie Mohd Nashar’s parents for the little girl's return.

The boy, who made several calls, also demanded that the parents reload his mobile phone with RM200 in credit.

The teenager from Bagan Serai was picked up from his house at 6.30am yesterday with the help of Perak police, Selangor CID chief Senior Asst Comm II Mazlan Mansor said.

This is the second arrest related to Sharlinie’s case after a 27-year-old maid was detained in Johor Baru for sending false SMSes on Sharlinie’s whereabouts.

Five-year-old Sharlinie went missing from a playground near her house in Taman Dato Harun here last Wednesday

Search intensifies: Toll operators are joining in the search for Sharlinie. A huge poster with the missing girl’s mugshot is visible to motorists at the LDP toll plaza at Sunway.
SAC Mazlan said the boy told the parents to pay the ransom money if they wanted Sharlinie to be returned unharmed.

The parents lodged a report immediately after receiving the calls, which were made over several days. The last call was made on Sunday, he said.

The boy was taken to the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters at 1.15pm and has been remanded until Friday.

SAC Mazlan said police were investigating why the boy demanded ransom and if he was involved in Sharlinie's abduction

Two girls go missing within 48 hours

PETALING JAYA (Bernama) - Less than 48 hours after six-year-old Nur Fateha Zaidi went missing in Desa Sepakat, another child went missing in neighbouring Taman Medan in the PJS area, Petaling Jaya.

In the 11.30am incident, Sharlinie Mohd Nashar, five, also known as Nini, was reported missing while playing with her elder sister Sharliena, eight, at a playground, about 200 metres away from their house.

Petaling Jaya OCPD, ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed received a report on the missing case at 4pm which was lodged by her parents.

He said Nini, the couple's youngest of three children, all girls, was clad in a striped light blue-white sleeveless top, light blue short skirt and pink slippers.

"The victim is about three feet two inches tall, of slight build with a round face, tanned complexion and short hair," he told reporters at his office yesterday night.

Arjunaidi said police were investigating, but at the moment they had classified it as a missing person case but did not dismiss that it could be linked to the abduction of Nur Fateha on Monday.

Nini's mother Suraya Ahmad 28, a housewife, said Nini was asked by Sharliena to accompany her to Muqaddam class at a neighbour's house but they went to the playground instead.

While on their way home, Sharliena realised that Nini was not behind her when she looked back and informed her mother about it.

Suraya said she and a neighbour went looking for Nini on a motorcycle in the rain until 2pm but could not find Nini.

Janji ibu bapa Sharlinie kepada penculik

PETALING JAYA 13 Jan. – Ibu bapa Sharlinie Mohd. Nashar, 5, yang masih marah dan sedih atas kehilangan kanak-kanak tersebut berjanji tidak akan berdendam dengan penculik anak mereka itu.

Sebaliknya ibu Sharlinie, Suraya Ahmad ketika membuat rayuan kepada penculik berkenaan dalam nada sebak dan beberapa kali mengesat air mata di pipi di sisi suaminya, Mohd. Nashar Mat Hussain berkata:

“Kami cuma mahukan Linie selamat. Pulangkanlah anak kami, kami sangat rindukan dia... tolonglah kamu (penculik) pulangkan Linie.

“Memanglah kami masih marah (dengan apa yang terjadi), mana ada ibu yang boleh terima anaknya diculik orang.

“Tapi kalau kamu (penculik) pulangkan Linie dengan selamat, kami janji tak akan berdendam dengan kamu, kami cuma nak anak kami... itu saja yang kami harapkan, kasihanilah kami.”

Ketika Suraya ditemu bual oleh wartawan, Mohd. Nashar tidak berkata apa-apa tentang rayuan isterinya itu.

Tubuh badannya kelihatan sangat lemah kerana keletihan berjaga dan ‘ke sana ke mari’ sejak empat hari lalu manakala raut wajahnya jelas menunjukkan kemurungan, kesedihan dan kekecewaannya.

Sepanjang hari ini para pemberita ‘hampa’ tidak mendapat sebarang kenyataan daripada Mohd. Nashar yang sekadar menjawab “no comment (tiada komen), no comment.”

Namun apabila Suraya menangis teresak-esak di hadapannya sambil memberitahu wartawan tentang rayuannya kepada penculik supaya memulangkan Sharlinie, Mohd. Nashar mengangguk-angguk tanda setuju apa diperkatakan isterinya itu.

Dalam pada itu, Suraya yang tidak menang tangan melayani wartawan dan pemimpin yang mengunjungi mereka berkata:

“Kami sekeluarga merindui Linie dan harap dapat berkumpul semula dan menjalani kehidupan seperti biasa,” katanya sambil mengesat air mata.

Mengenai penemuan patung kanak-kanak perempuan kira-kira 100 meter dari rumahnya, Suraya berkata:

“Apa yang saya tahu... patung itu milik anak jiran saya, ia bukan kepunyaan Sharlinie.

Jazimin offers support to Sharlinie’s parents

PETALING JAYA: He relived the trauma and grief of losing a child when he read about a missing five-year-old.

Knowing the pain the father was going through, Jazimin Abdul Jalil felt compelled to drive to Taman Medan here to offer emotional support.

Jazimin: Urged the press to be fair to Sharlinie’s parents
He spent nearly four hours with the parents and relatives of Sharlinie Mohd Nashar, believed to have been abducted on Wednesday.

Jazimin lost his eight-year-old daughter Nurin last year.

The girl had gone to buy hair clips from the night market just metres away from her flat in Wangsa Maju. She never returned.

In September, her body was found stuffed in a sports bag. She had been sexually abused and murdered.

“I suffered for 27 days – going around looking for her, the frustration of not knowing, the anxiety of waiting and eventually, the grief of discovering that my child had died.

“It was also difficult having to cope with all kinds of allegations written by some press, for example, that I was in debt with Ah Longs or that my wife and I were negligent parents,” said Jazimin.

He urged the press to be fair to Sharlinie’s parents by reporting accurately as some people might not come forward to help if they assumed that the parents were negligent.

“The important thing is to help find Sharlinie,” said Jazimin, who came alone.

He said he saw some similarities between the photofit of the suspect released by the police in Nurin's case and the photofit of the male suspect in the Taman Medan case.

Save the children

ANOTHER child has gone missing, the second child to disappear in the same neighbourhood in Petaling Jaya in under a week. Coming three months after the brutal murder of little Nurin Jazlin, 5-year-old Sharlinie Mohd Nasyar's absence since Wednesday morning is an urgent reminder that more has to be done to ensure children are safe.
The proposed Nurin Alert system would help immensely. Modelled on the successful Amber Alert programme in the United States, public notifications are made through media outlets, helping in cases when police need to disseminate information quickly and widely, to find an abducted child.

But preventing abductions is always going to be better than even the best system for recovering a taken child. A slew of measures has just been announced to fight rising crime, but prevention is something that Malaysians will have to take responsibility for.

Studies in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have shown that abductions by strangers are rare. The majority of missing children were taken by one of their own parents, usually divorced and denied custody or visiting rights. Abduction by relatives and known people is also common.

In Malaysia, there is much less data available but it seems safe to say stranger-abductions are crimes of opportunity. If opportunities abound, even the best-manned police force will struggle to keep up.
As in other countries, the pattern of rapid industrialisation and economic growth here has been followed by widespread urbanisation and fast-paced change.

This has created environments where communities are more fragmented and less social, where apathy and inattention give predators the chance they need to take a child from a playground, a street, a school compound. Even ever-vigilant parents need to teach their children, young ones included, the skills they need to survive.

They should be taught how to avoid abduction like they should be taught how to avoid getting hit by cars when crossing the road. Adults often assume children possess skills they may not have, so it will take more than just saying "bad men will kidnap you and make you beg on the streets".

Children are taught to respect and trust adults, so they need to learn how to sense danger. They should be told to kick and scream if someone forces them into a car. In this, at least, the government and the police can take a lead, funding awareness programmes, distributing booklets and offering training.

A sound programme is sorely needed if this year is not to be another year scarred by news of missing children.

Suria FM to provide updates on missing girl

KUALA LUMPUR: Suria FM has joined in the efforts to locate missing five-year-old Sharlinie Mohd Nashar.

Chief executive officer Engku Emran Engku Zainal Abidin said the Bahasa Malaysia radio station would give hourly updates on the little girl.

“Everyone should take part in the search to help the police. We hope Suria FM listeners will help to look for the girl.

“We will continue to make the hourly announcement until she is found,” he said Thursday.

Engku Emran said the radio station would also distribute 500 copies of Sharlinie's photograph and include printed with the Rakan Cop and police operations room numbers via its on-the-road promotion crew Suria Wheel every day.

“We will also post the girl's picture on our website,” he said.

He said listeners who wanted the latest news on the search of Sharlinie should tune in to Suria FM at 105.3 in the Klang Valley or visit its website at www.suriafm.com.my.