Story By: Lee Bullen,Sub Editor: Joseph Golder,Agency: Asia Wire Report

Three 13-year-old students are being quizzed over the death of a beaten seven-year-old boy at a Quranic school.

The incident took place at an unlicenced ‘tahfiz’ school, an Islamic institute where Muslim students study the Quran, in Lanchang in the municipality of Temerloh in the western Malaysian state of Pahang.

Police spokesperson Datuk Othman Nanyan told local media that the young victim died at 1pm at the Lanchang Health Clinic while undergoing treatment after allegedly being badly beaten.

The seven-year-old’s body has since been sent to the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital to undergo an autopsy.

According to Nanyan, the victim was found by a school caretaker in a weak state with bruising all over his body.

He was taken to the clinic where he died shortly afterwards.

After the incident was reported to the authorities, the police detained three 13-year-old students to quiz them over the boy’s death, the small tahfiz’s only other pupils.

Reports said that the victim started attending the tahfiz about a month ago with an older step-brother and two other students.

The Islamic school opened earlier this year and is run by a married couple, according to local media.

The investigation into the boy’s death is ongoing.

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