LANGKAWI: The two Myanmar national boys who died after eating food they scrounged from a rubbish bin in Langkawi yesterday, had allegedly been neglected by their father.
A Kampung Baru Sungai Tepa, Bukit Malut villager, who only wished to be identified as Kasim, 42, claimed that the boys, aged four and two, were not living under the proper care of their father.
However, he stressed that the children were never left starving as the villagers had been providing the children with food and shelter out of sympathy.
"The fateful incident was due to negligence by the family, not because they were starving as the caring neighbours here had been feeding the boys.
"I have also been giving some money to them almost every day and sometimes we provided them with some food.
"In fact, the boys were quite plump, so it was not likely that they had scoured the rubbish bin because they were starving," he said when met at the village today.
Kasim added that the boys were always seen playing near the rubbish bin which is located just 20 metres from his home.
"We are baffled by what happened to them because the boys were never seen rummaging the rubbish.
"It was unlikely they were scouring the rubbish to find food leftovers because they were starving," said Kassim who had been living here for two decades.
Kasim said he was unsure what sort of food leftovers the boys had eaten but added that wild monkeys had been frequenting the rubbish bin but nothing happened to the animals.
According to him, the boys and their father had just arrived at the village recently.
"They were taking shelter at one of the neighbour's home here and it is learnt that their mother had left them sometime ago," he said.
Kasim claimed that he offered to adopt the boys before this but their father disagreed.
"My wife and I are left distraught with what happened to the boys," he said.
Yesterday, brothers Nizambudin Jamaludin, four, and Ngei, two, died after eating food they scrounged from a rubbish bin in the village.
They reportedly died after their father found them near the rubbish bin in a disoriented manner.
He rushed them to a neighbour's home but the boys stopped breathing several minutes later.
Police believe the victims ate food they fished out from the rubbish bin.
Following the incident, Langkawi district police chief Assistant Commissioner Shariman Ashari said that police have detained the boys' father.
He said the man was being investigated under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 and Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.
Shariman, in a statement issued earlier today said the man was also being investigated under Section 15(1) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 after he tested positive for drugs.
The boys' remains were being transported from the Sultanah Maliha Hospital in Langkawi to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Setar today for post-mortem.