Missing teen, Naufal was pious, served as Imam at local surau - Father

GERIK - Muhammad Naufal Adzimi Mohd Harris, 17, who went missing at a rubber smallholding in Kampung Tanjong Sejarah, Kampung Tawai here three days ago was one of the best students at the tahfiz school he was attending and was able to recite 30 juz of the al-Quran by age 14.

His father, 46, said that his son, who enjoyed being called Naufal, had even managed to be the imam of a surau near his home.

He also shared that several days before his son’s disappearance, a teacher at the school contacted him recommending that Naufal be taken back from the dormitory after he began acting strangely.

"The teacher said that Naufal had written on both sides of an A4 paper about what he felt about the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination and the names of some friends and ustaz who he knew.

"He said that perhaps Naufal was feeling stressed because he saw some students had excelled for their SPM recently and recommended that I take him home, so I agreed,” he said, adding that his son had removed both side mirrors of his motorcycle on the day of his disappearance.

"I asked him why he did it, and he replied that he was influenced by the local drama ‘High Council’.

"At about midnight, Naufal acted nervous as he left the house without telling anyone where he was headed, but returned 20 minutes later before he was said by neighbours to have sped away from the house again at 2 am,” Mohd Harris told Bernama at the search and rescue (SAR) operation location here today.

Naufal’s mother, Rilawati Abdul Rani, 43, also joined in the search efforts, calling out his name repeatedly.

Meanwhile Perak Fire and Rescue Department Operations Division assistant director Sabarodzi Nor Ahmad said that search efforts that began at 9 am today was in a radius of four kilometres involving eight different groups of 115 personnel from police, fire department’s K9 units, the Civil Defence Force and the public.

"We are applying the Locate, Access, Stabilise and Transport concept using the sweep searching and fan searching techniques,” he said.

Naufal was last seen leaving his home at 2 am while talking to himself. His father had mounted a search with some of his neighbours before lodging a police report when Naufal failed to return home in the morning.

Naufal’s motorcycle was found abandoned at a rubber smallholding at around 6 pm the same day. - BERNAMA