WANG KELIAN, May 26 — A second body, believed to be victim of a human trafficking syndicate, was exhumed from one of the 139 graves discovered in the forest of Bukit Wang Burma bordering Thailand here today.
The fully shrouded body was exhumed by a police forensics team from a 0.4-metre deep grave at a jungle camp of 50 square metres used by human traffickers, and was carried out at 4.10 pm.
According to Padang Besar district police chief, Supt Rizani Che Ismail the forensics team did not open the shroud.
The body was immediately taken to Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah (HSB) in Alor Setar for post-mortem.
“Police believe the 37 structures found at the site are graves but today only one grave was exhumed,” he told a press conference at the General Operations Force (GOF) tactical headquarters here, today.
Police today also allowed 63 local and foreign journalists who had gathered at the site since yesterday to join the forensics team and GOF members to climb Bukit Wang Burma to see the illegal camps abandoned by the syndicate.
It took around two hours to reach the camp site via a road that had been cleared by the GOF to facilitate the forensics team and investigators to climb up.
The inspection found that the camp site was located on the slope of a steep hills, deep in the jungle, which was well hidden and wouldn’t draw any attention.
Yesterday, Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar announced the discovery of 139 graves in 28 temporary camps of trafficking syndicates spread across 11 kilometres, between Kampung Wai in Kuala Perlis and Tangga 100 in Felcra Lubuk Sireh.
The first body which was left to rot on the ground and found in one of the camps was sent to HSB for an autopsy yesterday evening.
Rizani said an operation to dig up all the remaining graves will continue tomorrow, and is expected to be completed within three weeks.
According to him, the position of the camps in steep areas along the Malaysia/ Thailand border complicated operations and pose difficulties in bringing down the bodies.
Bombarded by reporters who wanted to know about the latest arrests as result of police investigations, he said: “This matter is the responsibility of superiors. I am directed to provide information on the operation here alone.”
“We cannot give estimates of how many bodies are buried until all the graves are exhumed. However, our investigation does not end here. If new graves are found then we will inform further,” he added. — Bernama
