KUALA TERENGGANU – The fireworks explosion in Cabang Tiga here, which killed a 6-year-old boy and seriously injured two men, was caused by accumulation of firecrackers and sparklers powder in an unused washing machine.
Sources said the boy’s father and his friends had allegedly been storing gunpowder for some time to create a homemade explosive with the washing machine’s spin tub used for added effect.
“The whole idea was to create an explosion so loud on Hari Raya eve that it will eclipse all other fireworks displays by neighbouring villagers on that night,” the source said.
Sadly, it ended prematurely in a tragedy when Khairul Arif Ayub, believed to have been playing with firecrackers near the area, was injured when a spark landed in the washing machine containing the gunpowder, causing the explosion.
The massive explosion flung Khairul 15m up a tree. He succumbed to his injuries at the hospital later.
Khairul had earlier followed his father’s friends, Mohd Asrizan Muda, 22, and Mazlan Abdullah, 29, to the abandoned house.
His parents were away to pick a relative from a nearby complex and had left the boy under the care of his grandmother whose house was near the abandoned house where the incident happened.
Police yesterday obtained a three-day remand order on Khairul’s father. The 28-year-old suspect was produced at the Sessions Court just after 9am before court registrar Mohd Erman Che Mat. He had surrendered on Monday after police allowed him to bury his son.
Yesterday, state police chief Datuk Mohd Shukri Dahlan, said that police had, for the time being, ruled out homemade bomb as the cause of the explosion.
He said explosive experts from Bukit Aman and pathologists from the Terengganu Police Contingent had completed their investigations yesterday and a full report would be submitted in a week.
Shukri said although the two victims were now stable, they were still not physically fit for their statements to be recorded.
Meanwhile, in Kuala Lumpur, Bernama reported Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin as saying that the police would investigate Khairul’s death under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code for causing death.
He said the offence carries a penalty of a maximum jail term of 30 years and a fine upon conviction and was severe enough to act as a deterrent sentence. -NST
