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Malaysian police have detained
13 men and are looking for other suspects following allegations that a
15-year-old girl was raped by 38 men in the country's northern region,
Reuters news agency says quoting local media.
Astro Awani television and The
Star daily
reported that the assault took place in the northern state of Kelantan on May
20 when the girl was lured to an empty hut reported to be a local drug haunt.
The men took turns to rape her
for hours. Police were also investigating whether her 17-year-old friend was
also raped.
Media accounts, quoting
information from district police chief Azham Otham, said 38 men were
involved.
Several of those detained had
tested positive for amphetamine, the reports said. The New Straits
Timessaid
a man and his two teenage sons were among those detained.
Police said action could have
been taken had villagers reported the addicts' presence.
"It is very disturbing to
me that no one in the village was even suspicious when the closest neighbour
was a mere 20 metres away," Otham told The Star newspaper.
'Extremely worrying'
The alleged attack, one of
several brutal cases this week underscoring the violence to which women are
being subjected across Asia, sparked outrage among women's groups.
Politicians from a Muslim party
running the region said their proposal to introduce Islamic hudud law, with
harsh penalties, would deter offenders.
Suri Kempe, an official with
women's rights group Sisters in Islam, told Reuters that the frequent
number of rape cases being reported was "extremely worrying".
"Boys are being raised in a
culture where being masculine means being aggressive, and that it's perfectly
acceptable to use violence to get what you want," she said in a
statement.
Almost 3,000 rapes were reported
to the police in Malaysia in 2012, of which 52 percent involved girls
aged 16 and below, according to police statistics.
Convicted rapists face up to 30
years in prison and whipping, but many have called for stricter punishment.
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