Kena Pukau

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under Sarawak News

They are organised and methodical. They fear no alarm or CCTV and observe a peculiar ritual of eating at their victims’ kitchen before making a getaway
THEIR strange behaviour has given rise to a number of conjectures.
Some dub them ‘the hungry gang’ for their peculiar ritual of eating whatever food they could find at their victims’ kitchen before making off with their loot. Some believe they are just a bunch of hungry drug addicts out to hunt for food but at the same time take the opportunity to rob their victims.
Others, however, suggest that they are nothing more than just robbers and forced to eat at their victims’ kitchen simply to observe some rituals in return for ‘protection’.
Whatever it may be, only one thing is certain: This particular gang has been terrorising residents in Kuching’s Matang and Batu Kawa residential areas in the last few months.
Their modus operandi, as discovered in at least six cases that were reported so far this year, is to break into a house in the wee hours of the morning or late at night, wake up the occupants and tie them up before ransacking the house for money and valuables. After all has been done and over with and prior to making their escape, they would without fail help themselves to whatever food they could find in the kitchen.
Police have yet to establish whether they were locals or foreigners but some of the victims strongly believe they are not locals.
They seem to have no fear for alarm systems, close circuit cameras and silent alarms or had any qualms about breaking into even an occupied house.
To give themselves more time to escape, they sometimes disabled the phones so that their victims could not call for help immediately after they freed themselves but paradoxically took their sweet time eating before making their getaway.
Their ritualistic sharing of a meal among themselves in the houses they robbed has given rise to a number of conjectures for their strange behavior, which must have delayed their escape unnecessarily.
Some people simply dismissed them as hungry robbers who had to eat something before fleeing. This was the same explanation given by the police during a press conference recently. They surmised that the robbers had to drive quite a distance to cross the border to Indonesia and could not take the risk of delaying their escape by stopping at coffee shops or stalls to eat and also be spotted by the public in doing so.
However, there is a general consensus that their insistence on eating something before leaving has to do with black magic and mysticism and that they were actually sharing the food with their guardian spirit as part of a bargain for protecting them from slipping up and from being captured.
A victim, who wished to remain anonymous, told thesundaypost that the police explanation that the gang’s eating habits was to allow them to escape across the border without stopping along the way for food was wrong and that a more sinister reason may be behind the gang’s need to fill their stomach after each robbery.
“I definitely believe these people practise some sort of ‘ilmu’ (mystical art) and they need to eat to satisfy whatever spirit that protects them.
“Otherwise, how do you explain their ability to commit so many robberies without getting caught?” said the wife of a doctor, whose family was robbed by the gang on Sept 26.
She went on to relate that on the night the incident took place, she began feeling very sleepy around 9pm, which was unusual for her as she never went to bed before midnight. And as the robbers burst through the master bedroom door, her husband seemed unable to react and just sat passively as the robbers tied them up.
Describing the robbers as ‘organised and methodical’, she said they seemed to know exactly what had to be done and were always in control throughout the entire incident.
Another woman, the wife of a CEO, whose family were the victims on Sept 13, said she believed that the gang members were high on drugs and therefore were hungry leading them to eat whatever food they could find in the house.
However, she admitted hearing stories of the use of ‘ilmu’ by house breaking gangs and said that it might explain the gang’s insatiable appetite.
“I was told by my friends that these people have their own pantang (rituals) to follow whenever they break into houses, so it is possible they need to eat simply to conform to their pantang,” she said.
Both women believed that the gang members were Indonesians as the bills of the hand phones taken by the robbers showed they called someone across the border immediately after escaping.
Showing thesundaypost her handset bill which showed calls being made with her stolen handset to a number in West Kalimantan Indonesia within hours after their house was robbed, the doctor’s wife said that it proved the perpetrators were Indonesains although they probably had local accomplices to help drive them around.
Both victims also said that they had taken extra measures to protect their homes, including installing alarms and additional security grills.
“We are constantly living in fear that the gang will strike back at us again,” said the doctor’s wife.
Are these robbers really the practitioners of ‘black magic’, who entered into a contract with evil to gain riches through their nefarious activities in return for their souls?
However, not all magic spells are cast to bring about harm or protect evil doers as there are also those who turn to the spiritual world for good purposes like healing the sick, help reform unfaithful spouses or rebellious children, and enhancing chances of landing a job.
These people are traditional faith healers locally known as bomoh or dukun. They could be men or women and are usually well respected and even feared in their communities.
They recite chants and prayers to cure illness or free victims of black magic from evil spells. A bomoh or dukun also may be consulted to explain dreams, provide magic charms or potions and even catch evil spirits to cast them away.
To find out more about mysticism and magic spells, thesundaypost talked to two local bomohs, Pak Min and Tok Wan (not real their name) for their views.
Both Pak Min and Tok Wan did not rule out the use of black magic in the case of the ‘hungry gang’, saying magic could be used for either good or evil.
Explaining why the robbers had to eat a meal before escaping, Pak Min believed it was not the robbers who ate the meal rather the ‘genie’ with whom they had entered into a covenant of evil.
“I believe these people use black magic. When they acquire the magic, they made a promise with the genie that they will feed the genie whenever his protection is needed.
“And that is why they must eat whatever food they can find at their victims’ house before they escape with their loots. Actually it was not them (robbers) who ate the food but the genie,” Pak Min opined.
Pak Min further explained that the genie acted as the gang’s guardian, who could have been assigned to them (the robbers) by their master and feeding the genie was part of the bargain in return for their protection.
“If they don’t do that (eat at their victim’s house), the genie will not protect them. If the genie does not guard them, they will be recognised and caught,” he said.
“The genie is with them during that time … ordinary people can’t see the genie but the gang members can. Yes, they eat the food together but actually it was the genie that eat, and they have to let people see their left over because that is also part of the agreement,” he added.
However, Pak Min believed the robbers would not kill their victims because if they do, not only will their magic spell be broken, they could be severely punished by the spirit for taking a life.
“In any magic, white or black, there are many taboos to observe. Those who break them will face grim consequences.
“In the case of the hungry robbers, I believe they are not allowed to kill the victims. They can tie the victims up or threatened them, but not to kill them,” he said.
Tok Wan said robbers could also use ‘pukau’, magic spells that render their victims helpless and too weak to move or cause them to fall into deep sleep while they ransack their houses.
“Although not many practise pukau in Sarawak, they could learn the spell in Indonesia where it is widely practised,” he said.
He did not rule out the use of pukau by the ‘hungry gang’ robbers as in most of the cases, the victims did not do anything but to follow their instructions.
Tok Wan also said partaking a meal at the scene of the crime was one of the rules that must be observed for those who practised pukau.
A day after the break-in of the house of Assistant Minister in CMD at Matang in Kuching on Sept 27, police arrested five people, including four Indonesians, whom they believed were the ‘hungry gang’ who were responsible for a recent spate of robberies.
The suspects have yet to be charged but it seems they are not the ‘hungry gang’ because three cases of robberies during which the robbers helped themselves to whatever food they could find in the house were reported last month.
Is there a new ‘hungry gang’ taking over those who are under police custody or are those sowing fear among house owners in Matang and Batu Kawa areas now part of the same gang still at large?