Bogor. Further details emerged on Wednesday of the three young women who allegedly held their 13-year-old sister captive for two weeks, as the girls’ father gave an emotional account of how his daughters were seduced by a religious group.
The young girl, identified as Rohani Nurfitri, told police she was being held in the home of a prayer group leader, where her sisters were forcing her to study religion and encouraging her to turn her back on her parents.
“This prayer group has ripped my family apart,” Ujang Saefuddin, the girls’ father, told reporters outside the Bogor Police headquarters on Wednesday. “I have seven daughters and now only four are with me. My three older daughters left our house in Bogor and joined the group.
“They left the house in such a terrible way and have been missing since 2008.”
Pamulang Police in South Tangerang earlier revealed that Rohani escaped from the house on Jalan Benda Barat via the roof before being rescued by neighbors on April 29.
In their statements to Bogor Police on Wednesday, Ujang and his wife, Pujiati, confirmed the leader of the prayer group was a man named Bahrum Syah. The prayer group reportedly has links to the radical Indonesian Islamic State (NII) movement.
Bogor and South Tangerang Police are now searching for the three sisters who joined Bahrum’s group: Miming Sari Mulyani, 21; Lisa Sapnuryanti, 20; and Melati Saputri, 18.
Ujang said his daughters first made contact with the prayer group almost three years ago. He said on Oct. 1, 2008, all seven of his daughters “went missing” for five days.
“After five days, they returned to us,” he said. “They told us Miming had asked them to attend prayer sessions in the Pamulang area. I learned that my oldest daughter had been joining these prayer sessions since September of that year.
“After Miming first made contact with the group, she often failed to return home. When she did she would argue with us, her parents, on topics of religion.”
“Eventually, she decided to take all her six sisters with her,” he added. “Miming was actually in school and studying economics at a university in Pamulang. It was there that she met Bahrum Syah, who asked her to join this group.”
When his daughters returned to him and his wife, Ujang said, they did not come alone. They were accompanied by Bahrum and several of his followers.
“They came to my house and Bahrum Syah asked my children to make a choice. My children were instructed they had the choice to join the prayer group or stay with us. I was enraged,” Ujang said while he choked back tears.
“We physically fought. It ended with my three older children leaving the family to join Bahrum’s prayer organization. Even now, my three children have not come home to us.”
“I have also heard [rumors] that one of my older daughters is married to Hamzah, who was arrested for terrorism in 2010,” he continued, referring the man also known as Helmi who was arrested by the police’s elite antiterrorism unit in Cibiru, Bandung, in August.
Bogor Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Herry Santoso said police had yet to find any links between this prayer group and the NII.
“Our intelligence officers are checking on this, particularly the matter of indoctrination,” he said while refusing to elaborate further.
However, unnamed sources from the Pamulang Police said on Wednesday that background checks on members of the prayer group suggested that there were clear connections to the NII movement.
Pamulang Police Chief Comr. Zulkifli said earlier that Bahrum’s neighbors had complained that he held prayer sessions late into the night and that “residents in West Pamulang were immediately worried that these were the activities of the NII.”
“Yes, we know the NII does exist in Pamulang, but that does not mean that this particular incident is linked to the organization,” he said.
(x the JG)
do 5 mei 2011 - 7:54