BUKIT KEPONG SURVIVORS RECALL THE TRAGIC ATTACK THAT LEFT THEM ORPHANED

MUAR, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- Family members of policemen killed in the communist attack on Bukit Kepong Police Station 75 years ago are still deeply affected by the tragic event, which left them orphaned.

Zaleha Ahmad, 75, daughter of police constable Ahmad @ Mohamad bin Jaafar, said she was only three months old when her father was killed, leaving her with only photographs to remember him by.

Recalling her late mother Mariam Ibrahim’s account, the attack happened in the early hours while most of the residents of the police quarters were asleep.

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“At around 4.30 am, my late father was having breakfast while holding me when he suddenly heard gunshots from outside the barracks.

“My mother told me that as my father looked out the window, he was shot and collapsed. She couldn’t do anything before the communists entered the house and shot him again, causing his intestines to spill out,” she recounted to reporters at the Bukit Kepong tragedy commemoration ceremony in conjunction with the 218th Police Day celebration at the Bukit Kepong Emergency Gallery, here today.

Also present were Johor police chief Datuk M. Kumar and Muar district police chief ACP Raiz Mukhliz Azman Aziz.

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Another victim’s daughter, Jariah Jidin, 75, shared that her late father, Jidin Omar, was shot while she was still in her mother’s womb.

“My late mother told me that my father was shot in the stomach and died on the way to the hospital. Overnight, I became an orphan, growing up without a father, and could only find solace in my late grandfather’s love,” she said.

-- BERNAMA