The police have detained a woman whom they have been looking for to assist investigations pertaining to a false Short Messaging Service (SMS) message about Muslims being baptised.

Perak police chief Abdul Aziz Bulat said the woman, identified as Raja Sherina, was arrested in front of the Alor Star Hospital in Kedah at about 9.30pm last night.

She was with her 38-year-old husband and three-year-old son.

"When arrested, she became hysterical but her husband remained calm. She was then brought to the hospital for treatment while the boy was surrendered to her husband," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Abdul Aziz said police had tracked her down to Alor Star after two other locations - Sitiawan and Sungai Petani - in their hunt for her did not bear fruit.

Yesterday, police issued to the media a picture of the woman after attempts to get her to surrender herself proved unsuccessful.

Prior to the release of her picture, police had given Raja Sherina, believed to be in her 40s, two 48-hour periods from last Wednesday to turn herself in.

Abdul Aziz said after Raja Sherina was attended to for her hysteria, she and her husband were brought to the Ipoh police headquarters from Alor Star.

Her son was sent to a relative's place in Alor Star to be cared for, he said.

Three-day remand

He said this (Tuesday) morning she again went into a hysterical state and was brought to the Ipoh hospital for treatment before being brought to the magistrate's court to obtain a remand order against them.

The woman and her husband were ordered to be remanded for three days from today by magistrate Syamsul Rezal Md Ariff.

On Nov 5, more than 500 Muslims gathered to protest in front of a Catholic church in Ipoh after the SMS spread.

The message claimed that national mariner Azhar Mansor would be participating in the baptism of a group of Muslims there.

The SMS also alleged that Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria had confirmed that the baptism would take place.

However, the mufti later revealed that Raja Sherina was the source of the SMS message. He said that the woman had sent him the SMS and had also come to see him about it.

Meanwhile, Azhar has since clarified that he has never renounced Islam and had nothing to do with the incident.

It turned out that the event at the church was for the first Holy Communion of 98 Indian children.