Wednesday 19 September 2007

2007 09: Runaway girls return home

The Star online. News. Nation. Wednesday September 19, 2007

By AUDREY EDWARDS

KUALA LUMPUR: They had people searching for them for more than 48 hours while they roamed more than 50km using public transport.

Yesterday, the three teens, Norashila Jaafar, Rosbazla Mohd Basri and Nursyakila Azlan, reported missing over the weekend, were reunited with their parents.

The search ended yesterday morning when Norashila called her mother to tell her she was under a bridge near Pantai Dalam here, more than 50km from her Bukit Beruntung home in Taman Bunga Raya.

Her grandfather, Othman Mohd Ali then went to get her with some friends.

Their families had lodged police reports and also had search parties out scouring the neighbouring areas and in Puchong Perdana after they received a telephone call from a man saying that the girls were there.

Rosbazla and Nursyakila were at a 24-hour cybercafe in Pantai Dalam after Norashila led the police to the building.

“My father nagged me. So, I decided to run away from home and the other two followed me,” she said when met by reporters at the Pantai police station.

Her parents Jaafar Abdullah, a driver, and trader Zaimah Othman were there to meet her. The parents and family members of Rosbazla and Nursyakila also waited for their daughters.

On Saturday night, Norashila, a student at SK Taman Bunga Raya 1, had told her parents that she was going for terawih prayers with her younger sibling.

She had taken RM50 belonging to her mother and her father’s mobile phone.

The next day, they took a KTM Komuter train from Rawang to the MidValley shopping mall, then a bus to Puchong Perdana and returned to MidValley later in the day where they met a boy, who was a friend of Nursyakila.

They then went to the cybercafe in Pantai Dalam via the KTM Komuter and spent the rest of their time there.

“We ate bread all the time. And we ran if we saw someone trying to follow us,” said Norashila.
At the police station yesterday, Zaimah, 34, was heard repeatedly asking her why she had run away.

The girls’ fathers said they did not face any problem with their daughters.

Norashila’s grandmother, Zainon Amoo, said she kept advising Jaafar and Zaimah not to pamper the child, adding that Norashila was given pocket money and almost anything she asked for.

Brickfields OCPD Asst Comm Sulaiman Junaidi cautioned parents to watch over their children at all times.

“They might think running away is an outlet to calm down. So, parents should do something.”

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