GEORGE TOWN, Dec 14 — Myanmar nationals in the southern part of Penang island are observing a self-imposed curfew to ensure their safety in the wake of some 20 murders involving their countrymen by two gangs of serial executioners.
The killings began early this year but the surge in violence in recent months and the disclosure by police this week that more assassins were on the loose have struck terror among the foreigners.
Even though police have mounted a manhunt for the killers and pledged they were in control of the situation, many families have not had relative calm.
Many of those who work in factories and construction sites have stopped going out late in the evening, but if they must, they go in groups.
"We usually go to the nearest supermarket to stock up on our sundries and head straight home," said Maung Myint, 33, who works in a furniture factory in Bayan Lepas.
Myint, who lives with five friends including two Vietnamese workers in a rented flat in Bayan Baru, said he felt terrified after being told of how their own people killed each other.
He said he and his roommates had stopped going out after work ever since.
"It has become unsafe for us to go around on our bicycles in the evening now," said Myint, who came to Penang to work three years ago.
Naw Sawbwa, who hails from the Shan community, has also stopped going out after sunset.
"Our employer has cautioned us not to loiter around town in the evening. If at all we need to go out, it has to be in a group," said the 23-year-old food handler at a coffeeshop in Relau.
Naw said she had seen photos of how her countrymen were killed in Chinese newspapers. She felt sad they were killed in such gruesome manner.
"I used to go out late in the evening after work but have since stopped because of the murder that took place in Relau.
"It is too risky for us now, especially since the killings are confined to Myanmar nationals," she said.
Penang police revealed that a new group of Myanmar killers had been detected in the state.
The disclosure came soon after the discovery of another foreigner's body with his throat slit in front of a Buddhist temple in Relau on Monday.
Penang police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said the new gang, whose members had yet to be identified, was believed to be operating from the island.
He said police got the breakthrough after interrogating Myanmar nationals who had been arrested earlier.
Police are now looking for three Myanmar nationals to assist in investigations.
They have been identified as Mohd Yahyar Khan Rafie, 24, whose last known address is Taman Tun Sardon; Lokman, who is in his 20s and the third known only as "Gemuk".
Rahim urged the public not to be worried over the killings because the police were in full control of the situation.
Most of the Myanmar victims, aged between 20 and 40, were believed to have been abducted from their homes, murdered elsewhere and their bodies chopped up and dumped in isolated areas, including plantations and rivers.
Police recently made the shocking discovery of a slaughterhouse in Kampung Pisang where at least two men were believed to have been killed and dismembered.
Although police have said that the cause of the murders was "revenge", it is believed that they could also be a result of spillover of the Buddhist and Muslim communal clashes in Myanmar.
More than 60,000 migrants from Myanmar are reportedly living in Penang, many of them asylum seekers and refugees.
The state is also said to be a destination for stateless Rohingya with more than 100,000 believed to have fled Myanmar since the violence started in 2012.
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/myanmar-murders-self-imposed-curfew-in-penang-for-fear-of-serial-killers-2/
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