Mystery deepens over pastor’s abduction

PETALING JAYA: The mystery of missing pastor Raymond Koh Keng Joo (pic) deepens with each passing day, with no calls from his abductors.

Checks carried out by The Star at the alleged location of the incident revealed that most residents in the adjacent housing area were unaware that a kidnapping had taken place on Monday.

Koh has been involved in many church charity and community work with a group called Harapan Komuniti, which he founded more than 10 years ago.

Harapan Komuniti holds free tuition classes for children and English lessons for adults.

He courted controversy in 2011 after his NGO was accused by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) for proselytising Muslims following a raid on a thanksgiving and fund-raising dinner at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church.

His abduction was confirmed by Selangor CID chief Senior Asst Comm Fadzil Ahmat on Tuesday and police are still investigating Koh’s disappearance.

Koh’s family is anxious to know if he is safe.

Relatives said his wife Susanna Liew Sow Yoke, 61, was stressed as it had been five days without word of his whereabouts.

The family has enlisted the help of Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen to appeal for Koh’s safe return.

“We have sent a letter to the Kelana Jaya police station as we received a request from the family.

“As the abduction happened in my constituency, we wrote in on behalf of the family so that the police would give special attention to this case and update the family regularly. However, we do not want to intervene in the police investigation,” Wong said.

Koh, 62, was last seen by his family on Monday while he was delivering belacan to a friend who was returning to Medan, Indonesia.

He was wearing a polo-neck beige T-shirt and dark grey pants at the time of his disappearance.

The family has since heard from people who saw his abduction that three to four SUVs cornered the light-coloured Honda Accord.

They were told that one of the men was seen recording the incident while another diverted traffic.

All of the kidnappers were reportedly wearing black ski masks.

Police have gathered CCTV footage from the surrounding areas, including nearby residences.

One of the CCTV recordings shows three black SUVs stopping in the middle of the road at the time of the incident.

Koh’s abduction was not captured by the camera but the shuffling of feet can be seen, with two SUVs seen moving away followed by a light-coloured car which is believed to be Koh’s. The remaining SUV was seen trailing them.