The city’s People’s Committee submitted a plan to Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc earlier this month, asking for permission to gradually cut the number of vehicles in the central districts of the capital.

The plan details three proposals, including a new fee on vehicles entering the districts in question, an extra fee for pollution and administrative tools to manage electric bicycles and cars.

The measures are the city’s key strategies to for its master plan on congestion and pollution management, approved by the Hanoi People’s Council in 2017.

City officials called the proposed vehicle fee a behavioural economics initiative designed to restrict traffic in certain areas.

Several large cities around the world, including London and Singapore, have effectively applied similar methods.

Exactly where drivers will need to pay the fees is still undetermined, but the Hanoi Department of Transport said the first priority is to apply the fee inside city Belt Road No 3.

Belt Road No 3 is a comprised of several continuous roads that split the urban and suburban districts in southwest Hanoi. It runs through roads including Phạm Văn Đồng and Phạm Hùng, and ends at Thanh Trì Bridge.

The transport department hinted the fee could eventually be expanded to other zones. It will conduct surveys to determine which streets and areas would benefit most from a reduction in traffic.

The department said it is designing an automatic fee collection system to “avoid disturbing drivers”.

As a result, each vehicle owner will need to have a bank account with a special tool equipped to allow a toll booth to automatically collect the fee.

V The Hanoi Association of Transport vice president Bùi Danh Liên supports the move, but suggests limiting fee collection to the busiest hours to avoid restricting movement too much.

“Congestion only happens in Hanoi during rush hours, so that is when the fee should be applied,” he told Tiền Phong (Vanguard) newspaper.

Liên pointed out Singapore follows this model, only charging a high fee during rush hours. Drivers on the road before six in the morning or after seven in the evening pay a minimal fee, if they are charged at all.

“Hanoi should consider implementing the Singapore model,” he said.

Vietnam’s capital and the centre of life in the North, Hanoi attracts millions of migrants with many thousands of new arrivals each year. They come to the city seeking a better life.

With them, come cars and motorbikes.

Estimates say Hanoi will have over six million motorbikes and 800,000 cars clogging its roads by 2020.

Those numbers are expected to climb, and could hit 7.5 million motorbikes and 1.9 million cars by 2030, threatening to worsen the city’s already poor air quality.

The second proposal, an environmental fee on vehicles with four or more wheels, would be collected whenever a car is re-registered.

If this fee is approved, the transport department would start preparing now to begin collection in 2019.

Liên, however, opposes the move. He called it “a fee on top of another fee” because vehicle users already pay an environmental fee each time they buy petrol. The current tax is at least 3,000 dong (Bt4) per litre.

“It would be inappropriate for Hanoi to add another environmental fee,” he said.

Liên also noted the city’s plan does not distinguish between vehicles in the city centre and those that stay in suburban areas.

“A driver in rural Ba Vì District can’t, and shouldn’t, pay the same fee as one in Hoàn Kiếm District,” he said.

Humane Society International says it’s time for those who make a living from slaughtering and selling dogs to look for another profession, and understand the dangers of selling the meat.

This week Hanoi People’s Committee issued a statement saying the practice of dispatching, trading and eating dog and cat meat was cruel and left a bad impression on tourists and expats.

They also pointed to the possibility of diseases that could affect people who eat infected meat.

Dog meat, either raw or cooked, can be found in markets and restaurants all over the capital. There are reports of dogs being stolen from homes and sold for consumption.

Embracing the reputation of a “civilised and modern city”, Hanoi authorities hope the practice will stop.

Stalls selling raw dog meat on Tam Trinh Street in Hai Bà Trưng District are still busy despite the statement.

But Thẩm Thị Hồng Phượng, country director of the Humane Society International, believes those who make a living from catching, slaughtering, transporting and selling dog meat should better understand the consequences surrounding the trade.

“A survey carried out in 2016 revealed that people in the North eat more dogs than people in the South, so there is a transportation trade to carry dogs from the South to the North,” she said.

“About 20,000 dogs are transported every month from the South to the North. Because of that, there is a danger of rabies spreading.”

She estimates around one per cent of all dogs in the country carry the rabies disease.

She says her organisation wants to help with education, along with re-homing dogs that were in the past destined for the dinner plate.

“Once they have better knowledge of disease control, in the humane ways of treating the dogs, I believe that they will change themselves to a better or a different livelihood,” Phượng added.

“For so many years they have had income from that business. I believe those involved in that business are not only the restaurant owners but also the traders, the transporters, the vendors.”

But Vũ Hữu Nam, a butcher who works in Hanoi insists the meat is not only safe, but delicious as well.

Nam has worked in the industry for 20 years, and can still be seen chopping up dog meat at a restaurant on Tam Trinh Road.

“It’s normal to eat dog meat,” he insisted. “It has been a Vietnamese specialty for years. It’s still business as usual. People still eat it.”

And he says he does not think the authority’s call would affect those who work in the industry.

Some people believe the next generation of Hanoians are not interested in the tradition and see dogs as pets rather than food.

Trần Huy Tùng, 22, said: “I think we should protect dogs. I myself don’t eat dog meat and don’t like it. Not many young people eat dogs now because they consider dogs as their pets and close friends.”

Security guard and dog owner Quản Đức Hùng, 71, added: “We should ban it. Dogs are wise and close to human beings. We should not eat them.”

Fellow security guard Nguyễn Hoàng Linh, 62, is more concerned about the potential health risks of eating the animal.

“I find eating dog dangerous”, he said. “Slaughtering a sick dog may pose a risk of contracting a disease.”

However, he thinks eating dog is a personal choice and should not be banned.

Officials in Hanoi want the practice outlawed in certain areas, especially tourist spots, by 2021.

The Public Health Bill comes into effect once President Bidya Devi Bhandari authenticates it ahead of the September 18 constitutional deadline for endorsing it.

The bar on state funding was incorporated in the draft bill at the Parliamentary Committee on Education and Health on Thursday following an amendment registered by Nepali Congress leader Gagan Thapa and Nepal Communist Party leader Khaga Raj Adhikari.

The House committee on Friday forwarded the bill to the federal parliament, where it was endorsed by both the Houses unanimously.

The bill clearly says the government will not bear any expenses for medical treatment of any individual abroad. The Nepal government, once the Act comes into effect, will not be allowed to release funds for government officials, political leaders or retired VIPs in the name of medical care in other parts of the world.

Until now, the government has been providing millions of rupees annually for both sitting and retired presidents, prime ministers, ministers, officials and other eminent personalities for their treatment abroad.

“The Act aims at transforming the health sector while also managing and regulating the health institutions operated by the government, cooperatives and private sectors,” Minister for Health and Population Upendra Yadav said while tabling the bill for endorsement.

Thapa and Adhikari pressed for the provision arguing that it will help improve the country’s health care system while also saving millions of rupees spent abroad for the purpose. During his tenure as the health minister two years ago, Thapa had come up with a directive to check such expenses but it was not implemented.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, former president Ram Baran Yadav, former PM Sushil Koirala are the top recipients of government support for treatment abroad. Former minister Chakra Prasad Bastola, Sujata Koirala, and former justice Ram Kumar Prasad Sah also received millions of rupees from public coffers for care at foreign health facilities.

Drain on the exchequer

Late Sushil Koirala (former NC chief and ex-PM)    Rs19.18 million

KP Sharma Oli (PM)    Rs12.63 million

Aditya Dahal (known as Google Boy)    Rs10.91 million

Ram Baran Yadav (former president)    Rs6 million

Ramkumar Prasad Sah (former justice)    Rs5.03 million

Chakra Prasad Bastola (former minister)    Rs5 million

Late Ramnath Dhakal (lawmaker)    Rs3.21 million

Along with the Public Health Bill, the federal parliament on Friday also endorsed six other bills necessary for implementing the fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution of Nepal. The endorsed bills are on:

Safe motherhood and reproductive health

Right to employment

Consumer rights protection

Food sovereignty

Right to residence

Related to land

It was around 9:00pm on September 11.

After a day’s hard work, some of the 10 workers living in a makeshift house next to a large construction site in Malaysia’s Cyberjaya were preparing food while others were either having meals or chatting before going to bed.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of four to five motorbikes approaching. They got panicked as they were not expecting visitors at that hour.

“Everyone ran frantically. I was cooking… I ran with others and got hurt as I fell down hitting an iron bar in the dark,” said 24-year-old Shanto, a Bangladeshi migrant who works at the site around 35 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur.

Their attempts to hide themselves went on for some 20 minutes until they learnt that the motorbikes were not of the immigration police, but of some Indonesian migrants.

“We are under constant fear of arrest. It’s horrible..,” said Shanto, as he described the incident, sitting in front of a shabby labour camp locally known as “kongsi” next to the site where some 250 Bangladeshis — some 200 of them undocumented — work.

Tens of thousands of foreign workers in Malaysia have been living in fear and uncertainty since the government began a massive crackdown on undocumented foreign workers on July 1 following the end of a over two-year rehiring programme.

Under the programme, undocumented workers were given the opportunity to regularise their status by applying to the Malaysian government through three local private companies.

The crackdown intensified all over Malaysia on August 31, a day after the Malaysian government’s amnesty programme for foreign workers ended.

The programme, which began in 2014, gave illegal foreign workers a chance to leave Malaysia given that they paid a fine of 400 Malaysian Ringgit (RM).

It also included a condition that those going home would be barred from entering Malaysia for five years — a provision that discouraged many from using the amnesty. They instead chose to continue to work and try to become regularised complying with the procedures.

Of the estimated one million Bangladeshis working in Malaysia, around half are reportedly undocumented.

Though most of them have applied for regularising their work permits, nearly 80 percent of them are yet to get permits, according to migrants and activists.

It’s because the three Malaysian private companies — MyEG, Iman and Bukit Megah Sdn Bhd — or their agents and subagents defrauded the workers, taking advantage of their vulnerability and lack of knowledge about the regularisation process, they said.

Each undocumented Bangladeshi worker paid the agents between RM 5,000 and 10,000 (Tk 1-2 lakh) for getting work permits. For some, the amount was higher.

A large number of irregular workers got registered with the three firms for regularisation immediately after the rehiring programme began in February 2016. But they are yet to get work permits.

Now they are in extreme fear as the new Malaysian government is carrying out drives against undocumented migrant workers with a pledge to reduce the Southeast Asian country’s dependence on foreign workers.

The crackdown prompted scores of irregular Bangladeshi and Indonesian workers, who work at the site in Cyberjaya, to live in the woods to evade arrest.

“It is better to die than to get caught by the immigration police or jailed,” said 35-year-old Shafiqur Rahman, another irregular Bangladeshi worker from Sirajganj.

He said many of the undocumented workers have been living in the woods, about one kilometre from the construction site. They built shacks with iron and wooden frames, and plastic sheets.

“We often spot snakes in the woods. The place is full of mosquitoes,” said Shafiqur, as he led this correspondent to the forest area where they now live to evade arrest.

“We cannot really sleep here… This is not a life one wants to lead. My life is ruined here,” he said.

This correspondent spoke to about two dozen irregular workers in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang and Johor Bahru. All of them said they were living in constant fear.

One of them is 27-year-old Saiful Islam from Lakshmipur, who had spent Tk 3.8 lakh to go to Malaysia in 2015 with a “professional category” visa.

According to the job contract, his monthly salary was RM 3,000. However, once he arrived in Malaysia, his employer, an electric company in Kuala Lumpur, said he would get only RM 1,000.

He had no option but to change job and eventually got undocumented.

Early last year, he got registered with MyEG through a Bangladeshi agent. Since then, he has paid the agent more than RM 12,000 but is yet to get a work permit. The agent keeps showing various excuses for non-issuance of the document.

“I was detained by the Malaysian immigration police and was kept in a camp for nine days. I had to pay around Tk 50,000 to the officials there for getting released.

“I haven’t sent any money to my ailing parents for the last one year…  I still have loans to repay,” said Saiful, who works at a restaurant in Cyberjaya.

“I am worried about the future that lies ahead of me.”

MALAYSIAN MINISTER AVOIDS ANSWERS

Malaysia’s Human Resources Minister M Kulasegaran avoided giving any answer when this correspondent asked him why thousands of Bangladeshi workers were not issued work permits though they paid huge sums to the three Malaysian firms for regularisation.

“I have no answer for you. It is the responsibility of someone else,” he said in response.

The minister was speaking to reporters after an event at The Everly Hotel in Putrajaya on Thursday.

The massive storm, which forecasters have called the strongest typhoon this year, blew in windows, hurled debris and knocked out power lines when it made landfall on the island of Luzon in the pre-dawn darkness.

It packed powerful gusts of up to 255 kilometers (160 miles) per hour and sustained winds of 205 kilometers per hour while heading west across the disaster-prone archipelago towards China.

“As much as possible, stay indoors,” Chris Perez, a forecaster for the state weather service, warned the roughly four million people in the path of the storm after it landed at 1:40 am (1740 Friday GMT).

An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty.

Thousands of people fled their homes in high-risk areas ahead of the storm’s arrival because of major flooding and landslide risks.

Authorities hiked the storm alert on Friday to its second highest level in northern Luzon provinces and mobilised rescue teams.

The elevated warning level carried risks of “very heavy” damage to communities hit by the typhoon and a storm surge that was forecast to hit six meters in some areas, the weather service said.

Residents started lashing down their roofs and gathering supplies days before the arrival of the storm that forecasters said is the most powerful of 2018.

‘We are terrified’

“Among all the typhoons this year, this one (Mangkhut) is the strongest,” Japan Meteorological Agency forecaster Hiroshi Ishihara told AFP on Friday.

“This is a violent typhoon. It has the strongest sustained wind (among the typhoons of this year)”, he added.

After blasting the Philippines, Mangkhut is predicted to hurtle towards China’s heavily populated southern coast this weekend.

“They (authorities) said this typhoon is twice as strong as the last typhoon, that’s why we are terrified,” Myrna Parallag, 53, told AFP after fleeing her home in the northern Philippines.

“We learned our lesson last time. The water reached our roof,” she said, referring to when her family rode out a typhoon at home in 2016.

The country’s deadliest on record is Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in November 2013.

Poor communities reliant on fishing are some of the most vulnerable to fierce typhoon winds and the storm surges that pound the coast.

“The rains will be strong and the winds are no joke… We may have a storm surge that could reach four storeys high,” Michael Conag, a spokesman for local civil defence authorities, told AFP.

The storm is not forecast to directly hit Hong Kong, though it will feel Mangkhut’s wind and rain through Sunday.

However, the Hong Kong Observatory warned that the massive typhoon will pose a “severe threat” to China’s southern coast before moving on to northern Vietnam.

The proposal came from National Mandate Party (PAN) executive Yandri Susanto, who argued it was important for the head of state to speak English properly as he had to mingle with global leaders and speak at international forums.

“It’s important for a presidential candidate to be fluent in [English] […] so as to ensure that there is no miscommunication with the figures [the president] speaks to,” Yandri said.

The Jokowi coalition did not welcome the proposal.

“Don’t create weird proposals […] Debates between presidential candidates must continue to use the Indonesian language,” said Raja Juli Antoni, the secretary of Jokowi’s campaign team, on Friday.

“The essence of debate […] is for the public to know what is on the minds of our presidential candidates. The public wants to know their track records,” Antoni said as quoted by kompas.com.

United Development Party (PPP) secretary-general Arsul Sani said debates should be in Indonesian because the 2009 law on the national flag, language, emblem and anthem stipulated that the Indonesian language must be used in every national forum.

“I suppose the presidential debate is an official forum,” Arsul said, adding that the opposition should not offer such a proposal as it could encourage others to come up with other strange proposals, such as having the debate in Arabic or asking the candidates to take a Quran recital test.

Despite the suggestion having come from some of his backers, Prabowo’s running mate Sandiaga Uno said he disagreed with the proposal. “There are some people who understand English, but we want to reach out to all the people of Indonesia,” he said. (afr/ahw)

A resident carries a matrass inside a classroom used as evacuation center as Typhoon Mangkhut approaching the city of Tuguegarao, Cagayan province, north of Manila on September 14, 2018. // AFP PHOTO

Thousands have already fled their homes on the Philippines’ northern coastal tip ahead of the early Saturday arrival of what forecasters have called the strongest typhoon yet this year.

Businesses and residents on Luzon island, which is home to millions, were boarding up windows and tying down roofs that could be sheared off by sustained winds of 205 kilometres (130 miles) per hour.

The Philippines state weather service raised a “signal four” alert, the second-highest storm warning for winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour, for the Cagayan and northern Isabela coastal provinces.

Both areas are squarely in the path of the massive storm, which is about 900 kilometers wide, as it roars east across the Pacific.

“It is important for our countrymen to know that we have raised signal four,” forecaster Loriedin de la Cruz said during a televised safety briefing.

A signal four alert was issued for Super Typhoon Haiyan, which is the country’s deadliest on record. It left more than 7,350 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in November 2013.

Heavy rains and gusts were already hitting the far northeastern tip of Luzon on Friday evening from the storm that forecasters said is the most powerful of 2018.

“Among all the typhoons this year, this one (Mangkhut) is the strongest,” Japan Meteorological Agency forecaster Hiroshi Ishihara told AFP.

“This is a violent typhoon. It has the strongest sustained wind (among the typhoons of this year)”, he added.

– Storm surge –

Farmers in the region, which produces a significant portion of the Philippines’ corn and rice, were rushing to bring in crops that could be destroyed by flooding.

Filipino fishermen secure a boat in the town of Aparri, Cagayan province, Philippines, 14 September 2018. Typhoon Mangkhut, ranked as the most powerful of the year to enter the Philippines braces for the arrival of the storm that is expected to hit the northern island of Luzon. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

At least four million people are directly in Mangkhut’s path, which is predicted to move on to China’s heavily populated southern coast this weekend.

“They (authorities) said this typhoon is twice as strong as the last typhoon, that’s why we are terrified,” Myrna Parallag, 53, told AFP after fleeing her home in the northern Philippines.

“We learned our lesson last time. The water reached our roof,” she said, referring to when her family rode out a typhoon at home in 2016.

An average of 20 typhoons and storms lash the Philippines each year, killing hundreds of people and leaving millions in near-perpetual poverty.

Poor communities reliant on fishing are some of the most vulnerable to fierce typhoon winds and the storm surges that pound the coast.

“The rains will be strong and the winds are no joke… We may have a storm surge that could reach four storeys high,” Michael Conag, a spokesman for local civil defence authorities, told AFP.

Hong Kong is also in Mangkhut’s sights and preparations there were already underway Friday, though the storm was not expected to hit until Sunday.

The Hong Kong Observatory warned that the massive storm will bring “significantly deteriorating weather” to the city on Sunday and warned residents to take precautions.

Taiwan’s central weather bureau predicted that Mangkhut would be nearest to the island on Saturday, bringing heavy rains to its southern and eastern parts although it was unlikely to make a direct hit.

They were arrested by the Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division in Selangor, Pahang, Johor, Terengganu, Melaka, Kelantan and Penang, in an operation held between Aug 11 and Aug 31.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the first series of arrests were conducted on five men aged between 39 and 53, who are members of the Asoib terror cell in Selangor, Pahang, Johor and Terengganu.

“They planned to combine with another terror group in a middle-eastern country to launch an attack on a bordering country.

One of the Asoib members had even gone to the middle-eastern country to coordinate efforts on the terror groups’ impending strike against the bordering country, he added.

“This terror cell had wrongly misinterpreted the hadith (edict)and ended up believing that Imam Mahdi will come emerging in Mecca this year.

“They will then combine with the army of Imam Mahdi, as well as attack secular countries and the dajjal (evil person),” the IGP said.

Another five militants, aged between 18 and 50, were detained by the police in Melaka, Kelantan and Penang on Aug 25 and Aug 31, he added.

“This group is known as the Ar Rayah terror cell.

“The cell’s mastermind was planning to launch attacks on entertainment outlets in Melaka using smoke bombs. They believe using such bombs will cause a panic, and will then lead to heavy casualties,” he said, adding that five smoke bombs were also seized.

The country’s top cop said the mastermind was arrested in Melaka on Aug 25, while the four remaining members were picked up in Kelantan and Penang on Aug 31.

“One of the suspects –  a 50-year-old foreigner  from a South-East Asian country – is active in promoting the terror cell’s propaganda on a WhatsApp group dubbed “Ar Rayah Member”.

“The same man is also a member of a South-East Asian terror group. He is also influencing Ar Rayah militants to contribute in terms of funds and weapons to this other terror group,” he said.

All suspects have been detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), the IGP said.

Reports said coastal streets in North Carolina were flooded and winds bent trees to the ground as the storm, which has been downgraded to Category 1 and is weakened and slower moving than in recent days, prepared to make landfall at some point on Friday.

More than 150,000 customers in North Carolina were reported to be without power as the outer band of the storm approached.

Footage from US TV outlets showed raging waters hitting piers and jettys and rushing across coastal roads in seaside communities.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami reported “life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds” along the North Carolina coast.

In its 0600 GMT advisory, the center said Florence was over the Atlantic Ocean about 35 miles (55 kilometers) east of Wilmington, North Carolina and moving northwest at six miles per hour (10 kilometers per hour).

It added that the maximum sustained winds were 90 miles per hour. Florence is now at the weakest of five categories on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

In a display of the early effects of the storm, one flood gauge on the Neuse River in New Bern, North Carolina, showed 10 feet (three meters) of flooding, the NHC said.

With winds picking up along the coastline earlier Thursday, federal and state officials had issued final appeals to residents to get out of the path of the “once in a lifetime” weather system.

“This storm will bring destruction,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said. “Catastrophic effects will be felt.”

In Wilmington, a steady rain began to fall as gusts of winds intensified, causing trees to sway and stoplights to flicker.

Avair Vereen, 39, took her seven children to a shelter in Conway High School near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

“We live in a mobile home so we were just like ‘No way,'” she said. “If we lose the house, oh well, we can get housing.

“But we can’t replace us so we decided to come here.”

 – Monster storm surge expected –

Steve Goldstein of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Florence’s forward motion had slowed and it was not expected to make landfall in the Carolinas until “some time Friday afternoon, Friday evening or Saturday morning.”

He said hurricane-force winds extended outward 80 miles from the center of the storm and tropical storm-force winds extended nearly 200 miles out.

Some areas could receive as much as 40 inches (one meter) of rain, forecasters said.

“This rainfall will produce catastrophic flash flooding and prolonged significant river flooding,” the NHC said.

A tornado watch was also in effect for parts of North Carolina.

Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), warned the danger was not only along the coast: “Inland flooding kills a lot of people, unfortunately, and that’s what we’re about to see,” he said.

About 1.7 million people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia are under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders and millions of others live in areas likely to be affected by the storm.

Myrtle Beach, a South Carolina beach resort, was virtually deserted with empty streets, boarded up storefronts and very little traffic.

A state of emergency has been declared in five coastal states — North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia.

Duke Energy, a power company in the Carolinas, estimated that one million to three million customers could lose electricity because of the storm and that it could take weeks to restore.

    – ‘I’m not worried at all’ –

Not everybody was heeding orders to evacuate, however.

Antonio Ramirez, a construction worker from El Salvador living in Leland, North Carolina, said he planned to ride out the worst of the weather with his dog Canelo.

“The shelters are not taking dogs,” Ramirez said. “I’m not leaving him here.

In Wilmington, residents who had decided not to evacuate were lining up to get ice from a vending machine — $2 for a 16-pound (7.2-kilo) bag.

“I have no generator,” said Petra Langston, a nurse. “I learned from the past to keep the ice in the washing machine.”

Perched on the porch of his home, carpenter Tony Albright was calmly awaiting Florence’s arrival, beer in hand.

“I built this house myself, so I’m not worried at all, I know it’s solid,” he said. “I charged the batteries of my electronic devices, I have beers and video games.”

“The only thing missing in there is a hot lady.”

Gombak OCPD Asst Comm Samsor Maarof told Berita Harian, “Both men, who were involved in the cruel act which led to a stray pregnant cat being killed, were arrested early this morning (Sept 14, no time given) around the area.”The two suspects were arrested by officers of the Gombak police’s Criminal Investigation Division.

Samsor was also reported by the Malay daily, saying that the police are in the midst of searching for the other suspect who was at the scene with the other two men.

CCTV recordings showed two men putting the cat in the dryer before turning it on. This act was heavily condemned by social media users, who called the authorities to take stern action against them.

The case is currently being investigated under Section 428 of the Penal Code, for mischief by killing or maiming animals.

Samsor urged those with information on the whereabouts of the third suspect to contact investigating officer Insp Najmi at 017-929 1359.