Valentine’s Day raid: 10, including underage couple, held for khalwat

A suspect being escorted out of a budget hotel here in Kuala Lumpur.

(The Star) - Ten, including an underage couple were detained for alleged khalwat (close proximity) following a Valentine's Day raid at several hot spots in the city by officers from Department of Federal Territory Islamic Affairs to curb vice among Muslims.

"We believe the numbers are quite small and it could be because that many are away from the city due to the public holidays," its senior public relations officer Tuan Asmawi Tuan Umar, who spoke on behalf of the Jawi director, said at a press conference after the raid early Thursday.

Operations Valentine's Day 2013 began at midnight around Jalan Raja Laut and Jalan Ipoh with 60 Jawi enforcement officers, with the help of police, raiding eight budget hotels and scouring the Taman Tasik Titiwangsa area.

They found, among others, a 13-year-old boy with his 16-year-old girlfriend at a budget hotel.

The boy told the raiding officers that the duo had "running out of cash and couldn't call their parents because they had forgotten their parents' telephone numbers."

After further questioning, the boy said he was "just keeping his brother's girlfriend company at the hotel while waiting for the brother to him to come and fetch them.”

By 4am, the officers had netted eight others aged between 25 and 50 years old, including a couple who had RM15,000 in cash on them.

All the arrested couples are looking at possible charges under the Syariah Criminal Offences Act (Federal Territories) 1997 that carries a fine and imprisonment on conviction.

Three Muslim men, who were with non-Muslim women, were issued appearance notices to explain themselves to Jawi and to go for counselling.

Appearance notices were also handed out to three who were alleged dressed indecently, and another three notices to three others caught drinking alcohol.