Man recounts time in Myanmar scam park

Compiled by C. ARUNO, ZAKIAH KOYA AND R. ARAVINTHAN

A MALAYSIAN man paid a heavy price for trusting a friend, having ended up trapped in Myanmar as well as beaten, electrocuted and starved by his captors, reported China Press.

The 29-year-old, whose surname is Li, finally managed to return to Malaysia after being stuck in Myanmar’s notorious KK Park for 19 months.

Originally from Johor, Li told the daily that one of his friends from China claimed there was a job opportunity in Thailand where he could earn up to RM6,000 a month working in the oil industry.

Trusting his friend, Li travelled to Thailand to meet the recruiters but ended up being kidnapped and trafficked to Myanmar.

There, he suffered under the hands of a scam syndicate where he was required to hit a target of US$50,000 (RM236,400) a month.

Failing to do so meant that he would be beaten and given electric shocks.

Whenever he tried to contact his “friend” from China, all of his calls and messages were ignored, leaving him frustrated.

Li was released after his family members paid the captors a RM50,000 ransom.

He managed to travel to Thailand where he obtained a temporary passport, which allowed him to take a flight back to Malaysia.

> A tourist in China was slapped with a lifetime ban from a panda conservatory after attempting to feed an apple to one of the animals, reported China Press.

The incident happened on Oct 3 when a 49-year-old man threw an apple into a panda enclosure in a bid to feed one of the animals.

According to a statement released by Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the man had violated the rules and his actions could have severely harmed the pandas.

As a result, he incurred a lifetime ban from the conservatory.

It added that its staff removed the apple from the enclosure and are monitoring the pandas to ensure they remain in good health.

> A campsite at a music festival in China became a free-for-all for thieves after festival-goers reported that their valuables went missing once they stepped away from their tents, reported Oriental Daily.

The incident happened during the Central China Midi Festival 2023 where more than 150,000 people had gathered to watch live music performances.

One of the victims was a man named Zhang, who claimed to have lost his valuables, clothes and even his underwear after stepping away to go to the toilet.

He told the police that he lost around 5,000 yuan (RM3,284) worth of items.

However, Zhang said he was lucky that other campers donated clothes to him for the remainder of the festival.

Another man by the surname Wang reported that his entire camper van had been stolen.

Wang said he and his friends stayed in the van during the day but slept at a hotel at night.

When he came back the next day, his van was gone.

The Nanyang City Public Security Bureau confirmed that they received reports of items being stolen at the music festival, including tents, sleeping bags, camper vans, cash, credit cards, mobile phones and laptops.

However, it said the items are unlikely to be recovered.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.