‘I WON’T FORGIVE.’ ‘GIVE THEM THE DEATH PENALTY.’
ONE woman lost her son to the fire at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah religious school. Another woman is anguishing over her son’s life-and-death struggle. Both mothers, broken and angry, want the people who inflicted this suffering on them to be severely pu
THE mother of Muhammad Fahmie Abdullah, 11, one of the 23 victims who died in the fire at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah religious school, said an apology from the suspects behind the tragic incident would mean little as it won’t bring her son back.
“I won’t forgive what they did. It was intentional, right from the start,” said Noorazlina Bakry, 35, when met at her house in Taman Paroi Jaya here yesterday.
“How could they? It was a heartless act.
“No matter how much I think about it, I just can’t make sense of what they did and forgive them. I don’t want to meet them (suspects). I don’t want to see their faces. I won’t forgive them.”
“I hope those responsible for this incident will get due punishment. It’s better if they stay in prison forever.
“What kind of heart do they have?
“How could they (do it) to the tahfiz students?”
Her sister, Noridayu Bakry, 32, whom Fahmie had fondly referred to as “mama”, said she heard rumours about the motive behind the incident, but didn’t pay attention to them until she saw the press conference on television on Saturday.
“I’m lost for words. It was a huge shock to all of us,” she said.
She said her family was holding a kenduri tahlil at her parents’ house here when the news was confirmed by the police.
Noridayu said while the whole family had accepted the incident as fate, she wished to meet the suspects and their family members for closure.
“I just want them to apologise to all of us, the family members of the victims.
“I believe they (suspects) will get fair punishment, and on our part, we just want to close this painful chapter and move on.”
Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Amar Singh had said police believed they had solved the case with the arrests of seven teenagers aged between 11 and 18, who had allegedly intended to burn down the school in an act of revenge over a name-calling incident that happened a few days before the fire.
In Kuala Lumpur, the mother of a survivor called for the maximum penalty to be handed down to the suspects if found guilty.
Ermayani Normatias wants justice to be served as her 11-yearold son, Indrakurniawan Mohd Amirul, was fighting for his life at Kuala Lumpur Hospital’s burns intensive care unit (ICU).
Indrakurniawan, who sustained 20 per cent burns on his back and both his hands, and a broken leg after leaping from the school’s third floor, is under sedation.
Ermayani, 38, who read the news of the seven suspects and the case being solved, said the culprits must not be let off lightly.
“If the seven suspects are indeed found guilty, they should be sentenced to death.
“I am shocked that they are just teenagers but capable of committing such a heinous act. They are like extremists and terrorists,” said Ermayani, a cleaner at a factory here.
Ermayani, who was met at the ICU corridor, said she had been having sleepless nights thinking of Indrakurniawan’s condition.
Indrakurniawan is the eldest of three children and had been studying at the school since January.