Tonto rams vehicle into Customs officers’ car

PADANG BESAR: Three Customs enforcement officers were seriously injured when their car was rammed by another vehicle, believed to be driven by a tonto, at the 20km mark of the Jalan Padang Besar-Kangar stretch here.

District OCPD Supt Rizani Che Ismail said that during the 4.15am incident yesterday, the officers had been tailing three Thai-registered pick-up trucks believed to be smuggling alcoholic beverages.

“They were unaware that they were being tailed. The other car then knocked them from behind twice and again from the side, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle,” he said.

Perlis Customs director Kamarudin Jaafar said the driver of the other car had shouted at his officers to stop following the pick-up trucks.

“One of my officers, Mohd Sapawi Rusdi, was flung out of the vehicle and sustained serious head injuries,” he said.

Two other officers, driver Mat Zoher Mohd Saad, 45, and Abdullah Ayub, 27, also suffered serious injuries and were admitted to the Tuanku Fauziah Hospital.

Kamarudin said the department considered the incident as attempted murder.