KUALA LUMPUR: Sepang police have dismissed reports that residents of Medan 88 in Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi had run away from the away. Instead, they were afraid of entering the housing area on finding it surrounded by barbed wire on returning home from work.
Sepang district police chief Wan Kamarul Azran Wan Yusof said many residents were at work when a lockdown under an enhanced movement control order was enforced on Wednesday. They were unaware of what was happening.
He said when they returned home from work and saw army personnel were installing barbed wire coupled with the presence of policemen at their residences, they were afraid to enter the area.
“No person from the area has run away as has been reported by the media previously.
“There are between 700 and 800 residents living in the area and about 400 of them have yet to be screened for Covid-19,” he told Bernama today.
He said 13 Medan 88 residents – seven foreigners and three women – who were suspected of running away from the lockdown had returned to their respective homes since 9pm yesterday.
Wan Kamarul Azran said efforts to track down others who have yet to return home are being carried out with the cooperation of residents in the area.
Yesterday, Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Ismail Sabri Yaakob said police were tracking down about 400 residents of Medan 88 who did not return home after it was announced that the area would be placed under EMCO.
Selangor police chief Noor Azam Jamaludin said they would obtain information from employers about the location of workers from Medan 88 who allegedly did not return to their respective homes.
He said the police would also seek cooperation from their colleagues in order to locate their whereabouts.
“Police are also in the midst of identifying the actual number of individuals who are said to have run away after receiving information that the area was installed with barbed wire due to the implementation of EMCO.
“The figure of 400 people is only a rough estimate,” he told Bernama.
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