KUANTAN, Jan 11 — Revenge is believed to have been the cause of the brutal murder of a girl whose body was found at an oil palm plantation in Kampung Tanjung Medang Hilir, in Pekan last Saturday.

Pahang CID chief Datuk Othman Nayan in a press conference here today said the police arrested a 23-year-old Cambodian man on January 31 after receiving a report on the disappearance of the 11-year-old Cambodian, Siti Masitah Ibrahim.

She was believed to have been ruthlessly killed on the same day she was reported missing (January 30) and her body was found by villagers on Saturday (February 9) with the head detached and several internal organs missing.

"The suspect, who did not have identification documents, was known to the victim’s family and lived in the same village. At the beginning, the suspect did not confess regarding the loss of the victim, but after the body was found, he revealed his involvement in the matter,” he said, adding that the police had seized a wooden weapon believed to be used to beat the victim.

According to Othman, the post-mortem showed the child died of ‘probable head injury’ and there were also traces of injury on the victim’s left jaw and skull, believed to have been struck with wood.

Meanwhile, Othman dismissed news circulating on social media that the missing organs were linked to human trafficking and organ harvesting activities.

"We do not rule out the possibility that the body’s mutilation was caused by wild animals and due to the fact the body was left exposed for a long period of time,” he said.

He also denied allegations that the police were slow to take action, as the arrest and interrogation of the suspect were done immediately after receiving a report on the loss of the victim on January 30 at 1pm.

The victim’s mother, Zaleha Abdullah, 35, was previously reported as saying that the last time she saw her daughter was at 5pm on January 30, when the latter had asked her for RM1 to purchase something from a nearby shop.

The suspect was detained at about 2am on January 31 at the Kampung Tanjung Medang Hilir intersection in Pekan after witnesses claimed to see Siti Masitah on a motorcycle ridden by the man on the day the latter was reported missing. — Bernama