The Malaysian Insight

THE dilapidated home of an 11-year-old child bride, in a village a half-hour drive from Gua Musang town, was deserted this morning.

A neighbour told The Malaysian Insight that the girl’s parents had said they were taking her back to Thailand yesterday to renew her passport.

Clothes left hanging outside the house suggest that they had left in a hurry.

Three women Gua Musang health officers came to check on the child about 11.20am, to no avail.

A dozen chickens were seen roaming in the compound, located on a hill surrounded by rubber estates.

Gua Musang police chief Supt Mohd Taufik Maidin said the girl’s parents did not inform police about their trip to Thailand.

“They are supposed to be at their house.”

News of the child bride broke after the second wife of 41-year-old rubber trader Che Abdul Karim Che Hamid highlighted his marriage to the girl, his third wife, last month.

The second wife, Effa, has threatened divorce.

“Better than having our children suffer seeing their friend become their mother,” she said on Facebook on Monday. – July 4, 2018.