Less than 24-hours after Mohamad Thaqif Amin Mohd Gadaffi was declared dead from a beating by the assistant warden at his religious school in Johor, the institution has passed muster with the Johor religious department, and will not be charged with negligence.
State executive committee chairman Abd Mutalip Abd Rahim has said that this was the conclusion of an investigation by the Johor Islamic Religious Department (JAIJ) into the school, which has been named as Madrasah Tahfiz Al-Jauhar, in Kota Tinggi.
“However,” he said. “In light of the recent incident, JAIJ will come up with new guidelines for these schools to hire staff, especially those in charge of student welfare.”
He went on to say that there are at least 86 privately-run registered, religious schools in Johor, and that it had been difficult for JAIJ to keep track of them all.
More details have emerged of the incident, that saw the 11-year old fatally beaten with a garden hose. The attack took place 24 March; however, he was only brought to the Sultan Ismail Hospital in Johor Baru on 19 April. By that time, his catastrophic injuries were infected, and his only chance at life was amputation. Unfortunately, his condition was so grave that not even surgery could save him, and he died 27 April.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar assured the public that the case is being treated, and classified, as murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code. The postmortem on Thaqif will only be ready in 2 weeks.
Let’s hope that the systems that failed the young, innocent boy will be rectified so that something so heinous, at the hands of individuals and institutions that parents entrust, will never happen again.
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