Residents of Taman Kota Jaya near Kota Tinggi, Johor had the daylights scared out of them as they passed by a nearby intersection, where a “hantu pocong” – or a reanimated bundled corpse, in Malay superstition – could be seen leaning against a banana tree.
The ghost, as most are, was a hoax, made up of a few bundles of cotton and loose cloth wrapped in a telekung (a Muslim women’s prayer robe) and tied in sections with string, to look like a corpse shrouded for Muslim burial.
Local shopkeeper Ramlan made a call to the police after himself receiving a phone call from a friend informing him of the “ghost’s” presence.
“I was shocked as this incident (pocong) has never happened to me since I opened my business here for more than three years. This prank is done by mischievous youths to scare people,” he told Bernama yesterday.
Before authorities descended on the scene to remove the prank, locals were seen taking pictures of (and with) the fake apparition.
Kota Tinggi disctrict cemetery supervisor Jamaludin Sapuan was not as amused.
“This act of creating ‘pocong’ is bad and considered as ‘khurafat’ (polytheism) in Islam,” he said.
“Hopefully those people involved in this ‘pocong’ prank knows Islamic laws and teachings and do not repeat it.”
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