Graves in four Muslim cemeteries in Pengerang, Johor, have been exhumed and relocated without proper procedures being followed, claimed PAS vice-president Salahudin Ayub.

Deploring the ‘desecration’, he named the Johor Islamic Corporation as having been tasked with relocating the graves.

azlan Salahudin said the 249 graves were exhumed between Dec 21 and Dec 28 last year, without supervision from the Johor Islamic Affairs Department, the Kadhi's Office and the state Health Department.

"The (remains) are placed on top of one another under a tree ... they are then placed in shallow graves measuring 15 inches (38cm) deep. This will not stop wild animals from digging (up the remains)," he said.

Salahudin also claimed that Petronas had paid RM8,000 to the corporation for each grave exhumed and shifted, but it was not done in a proper way to respect the dead.

Gabungan NGO Pengerang chairperson Anis Afida Mohd Azli said the site of the new graves has not been fenced up and that the place is muddy.

She also showed photographs of the graves that have been exhumed.

NONE Anis Afida said initially, advertisements or notices had been put up over the relocatation of one cemetery where the descendants were not known.

However, she said instead of doing work on the cemetery for which the notices had been put up, they worked on the four other cemeteries, where she claimed no notices had been put up. The cemeteries were those in Kampung Sungai Kapas, Kampung Jawa Laut and Kampung Jawa Darat, where 194 graves are involved.

Last week, the Johor mufti had called for relocation of the graves to be deferred until the new site is ready.

Salahudin and Anis Afida said PAS Johor had also met Johor mufti Mohd Tahrir Samsudin and he had been receptive, and hence to the mufti’s credit he had ordered the halt.

Judicial review application and referendum

Salahudin said as a result of this, PAS will lead the Pengerang residents to file a judicial review application on Wednesday to halt the development of the Petronas Rapid project in Pengerang.

NONE “Lawyer Mohd Hanipa Maidin (also a PAS central committee member) is compiling the list of residents who are with us in filing the application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court. This judicial review is sought to stop the project.”

The PAS vice-president said that they will also arrange with the residents to have a referendum against the project.

However, he said the referendum will be held after the decision on the court case.

NONE Salahudin also maintained that the death of three family members in Pengerang on New Year's Day was due to suicide after they were served with an order to vacate their land following a takeover.

This, he said is the feedback that they have received as a neighbour had heard the 62-year-old man complaining about the land acquisition and his concern over the welfare of the family before the death.

“Hence, such a project has had a negative impact on the community. PAS have no qualms against development but it should be done properly and not be a burden to the people,” he said.