PETALING JAYA: Bukit Aman has refuted talk that it has detained 80 haj pilgrims who were stranded at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after they failed to get the necessary travel documents to enter Mecca.
“This is not true,” said Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department acting director Comm Datuk Muhammed Hasbullah Ali, referring to a news report about the detention.
He said that a police task force which conducted “Ops Haji Terkandas” had found the group of stranded pilgrims on June 2 at the airport, waiting for someone with the title “Datuk” who was supposed to hand them the relevant visas which would enable them to perform the pilgrimage.
“However, those visas were never received,” he said.
In a statement yesterday, Comm Muhammed Hasbullah also said a couple had lodged a police report that they had submitted their passports to two individuals who offered them free haj packages by a so-called travel agency.
“They were promised a flight to Mecca on June 1. However, up until June 3, there had been no confirmation from the airline,” he said.
The complainants told the police they were worried that their personal details would be misused.
“A total of seven reports have been linked to this agency,” he said.
He added that two people, aged 36 and 39, were arrested on June 3 on suspicion of being the mastermind.
One of them is believed to be the so-called “Datuk”.
