Johor Bahru Is Never A Safe Place

Today I stumbled upon this news when I rambled around the Internet.

Men with parangs slash, rob bus driver
By Farik Zolkepli

JOHOR BARU: Two parang-wielding men slashed a bus driver and robbed him during an attack inside a Singapore bound transit bus.

The attack, believed to be the first involving the (SBS) Transit Services bus number 160, occurred at about 3.45pm Tuesday near a mall along Jalan Tun Abd Razak when the two men, posing as passengers, boarded the bus at the Kotaraya Terminal.

It is learnt that as the bus reached the mall here, the men took out parangs and demanded money from the 28-year-old driver.

Sources said that when the driver refused, they slashed him on the arm and took cash amounting to RM260 and S$50.

As the driver slowed the bus due to his injury, the two men jumped off the bus and fled. The two passengers on the bus were not robbed or hurt.

The Malaysian driver, who is also a Singaporean permanent resident, then sought treatment at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital.

He then reported the matter at the Central Police station at about 7pm the same day.

Johor deputy CID chief Asst Comm Che Yusoff Che Ngah confirmed the incident and said on Wednesday that police were in the process of identifying the suspects.

Meanwhile, on another matter, ACP Che Yusoff said that the hunt was still on for the 21-year-old suspect, who escaped police custody on Tuesday.

"We are still searching for the suspect," he said.

On Tuesday, the suspect escaped as he and other prisoners were being transferred from the Ayer Molek penitentiary to the Johor Jaya police station.

The incident occurred, as the prisoners were about to arrive at the station at about 11.50am.

ACP Che Yusoff urged anyone with information to contact the police hotline at 07-2212999 or the nearest police station.

(Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/11/nation/20090211140521&sec=nation)

SBS160 is one of the buses that I normally take to travel to Singapore via the Causeway. Fortunately I was not on the bus at that time. Otherwise I would be stunned and petrified of the incident. The driver is so pathetic. Hopefully the robbers will be caught by policemen very soon. However, everyone knows how "competence" our policemen are. I just cannot imagine how the prisoners could escape the police custody. */