PETALING JAYA: The Attorney-General’s Chambers has directed the police to exhume the body of Form 1 student Zara Qairina Mahathir for a post-mortem to be conducted.
“The post-mortem is necessary to ensure police will be able to obtain additional information and evidence needed to complete the probe into Zara Qairina’s death,” it said in a statement.
The AGC said that after reviewing the preliminary report by the police into the teenager’s death, it found a need for the matter to be investigated further.
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});On Wednesday, the AGC had said it returned the preliminary report by the police on Zara Qairina’s death to the authorities so that they could complete their probe.
Attorney-General Dusuki Mokhtar said they had issued specific instructions to the police, which meant there were a few things that needed to be complied with.
Zara Qairina was found unconscious at 4am on July 16 after she allegedly fell from the third floor of her school’s hostel in Papar, Sabah.
She died at Queen Elizabeth I Hospital in Kota Kinabalu the following day.
Sabah police commissioner Jauteh Dikun had previously said they had not ruled out the possibility that she had been bullied.
Meanwhile, the re-circulation of old videos involving student fights in the state is a cause for concern as it may have a negative impact on those who have already gone through the recovery process at school.
“I have found cases involving students or pupils outside of school, which occurred several years ago, being re-shared even though the issues were already resolved at that time,” said Sabah Education Director Datuk Raisin Saidin.
“This re-sharing is very unhealthy because the students involved, some of whom are still studying in secondary school or college, have already undergone interventions and guidance from the school. Their attitudes have already been shaped.
“Certainly, the re-circulation of these cases will have a negative impact on those involved because they too wish to build meaningful lives,” he said.
He was responding to a video posted by Kinabatangan Member of Parliament, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, which showed a group of female students beating up one of their classmates.
Commenting on the one-minute video, Raisin confirmed that the incident occurred in 2023 and was already handled by the police.
“This case was resolved in the same year it happened. It is closed,” he said.
In the post, Bung Moktar claimed the incident involved students from a secondary school in Kota Kinabalu and urged the authorities to take immediate action.
“Those involved should be punished,” he wrote in his Thursday post.
The issue of bullying has gained widespread attention, recently, following the tragic incident involving the late Zara Qairina Mahathir, 13, who was reported to have fallen from the third floor of a hostel building at a religious school in Papar on July 16.
Zara Qairina passed away the following day, and her death has been linked to allegations of bullying that reportedly occurred at the school.
