‘Futsal row could have sparked feud’

Tahfiz teacher: Youths picked up by police could be the same ones who made trouble in court

My wife keeps telling me she can still hear the frightened screams of the students who died.

Muhammad Azhari Mahmud

KUALA LUMPUR: A teacher who was living with his family at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah tahfiz that was damaged in a fire which killed 23 people is horrified to learn that the culprits are teenagers.

Muhammad Azhari Mahmud, 40, said the teenagers could have been the same group that had quarrelled with some of his students earlier in the year.

“I used to take some of the boys to play football or futsal,” he said at the school on Sunday.

He recalled that the argument was over the use of the futsal court.

“I did not think anything of it at the time and I can’t be certain if they are the same teenagers who were arrested after the fire,” he said.

Muhammad Azhari said he was thankful his family members were safe but had “wanted to cry out” after learning that so many students and two of his colleagues had perished in the blaze.

He was in Mecca at the time of the incident and said that he nearly lost his mind when he got the news.

A fellow Malaysian there had lent him a mobile phone so that he could check on his wife, who is expecting, and his children.

“I was relieved that they had escaped the flames,” he said.

His eldest daughter fled out a window while his wife handed their two youngest children to some young bystanders who helped them to safety.

But firemen had to rescue his wife and their nine-year-old daugh- ter from a bathroom in the burning building.

“I can’t express how grateful I am to Allah, the bystanders and the firemen for saving my family,” he said.

“My wife is still traumatised by her ordeal. She keeps telling me she can still hear the frightened screams of the students who died,” said Muhammad Azhari.

Those who died in the fire had been trapped on the top floor of the three-storey religious school in Datuk Keramat early Thursday morning.

At a press conference on Saturday, Kuala Lumpur police chief Comm Datuk Amar Singh Ishar Singh said seven youths, aged 11 to 18, have been remanded for a week.

He said the fire was believed to be arson and an act of revenge over an exchange of insults between tahfiz students and several outsiders.

Also, six of the suspects tested positive for drugs.

The other remaining students are expected to resume classes at a new building next month.

The school now has 18 students, aged between 13 and 17.