Kelantan police on a manhunt following five-year-old child abuse case

The Kelantan police force is tracking down a couple aged 40 and 25 respectively to facilitate into the investigation of a child abuse case in Pasir Mas on June 25 involving a five-year-old girl.

According to Kelantan police Chief Datuk Mazlan Lazim, the young couple was believed to have fled to Thailand.

He said the police force are cooperating with the Thai authorities authorities to clamp down the couple as soon as possible.

"The victim sustained serious injuries and we will be investigating under Section 31(1) of the Child Act 2001 to apprehend the father and the stepmother who are the child's guardians.

"Right now we're hunting them down. We view this as a serious case of abuse as the five-year old wasn’t treated as a five-year old because the child was not fed and her whole body was filled with injuries," he said.

He was speaking to reporters after visiting the child in the paediatric ward of the Raja Perempuan Zainab 11 (HRPZII) hospital here this morning.

According to Mazlan, the abuse sustained by five-year-old Nur Zuliana Zaara Mohd Mishabuddin who lives in Taman Rantau Mas, Rantau Panjang is categorised as a serious as her body is covered with both new and old injuries.

On June 25, the child's mother mother had lodged a police report claiming that her child who was under the care of the stepmother and her ex-husband had been abused.

After discovering her daughter's weak form, she was was taken for treatment to a hospital in Sungai Golok, before being referred to HRPZII on June 26.

The child's condition remains weak but stable.