Yahoo - AFP, 10 June 2015
Mount
Kinabalu is considered sacred by Malaysia's Kadazan Dusun
tribal group, who
believe it is a resting place for spirits
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Malaysian
authorities have detained four tourists -- two Canadians, a Briton and one
Dutch national -- for allegedly stripping naked on Mount Kinabalu, an act some
locals say angered tribal spirits and caused a deadly earthquake, officials
said.
Pictures of
10 naked tourists had spread on social media and infuriated locals following
the 6.0-magnitude quake that struck near the mountain on Friday and killed 18
people. Six other tourists are still apparently at large, according to police.
Mount
Kinabalu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular climbing destination, is
considered sacred by Malaysia's Kadazan Dusun tribal group, who believe it is a
resting place for spirits.
"We
detained all four of them on Tuesday... and yes we are still searching for the
other six tourists, and we will catch them," said Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman,
the police commissioner for the Malaysian State of Sabah where the mountain is
located.
Jalaluddin
said those detained might be charged for causing public nuisance.
Sabah
provincial tourism minister Masidi Manjun tweeted that legal proceedings
against the four foreigners had begun and that they would be remanded for four
days.
Friday's
quake sent landslides crashing down from Mount Kinabalu's summit just as more
than 150 hikers were at the peak enjoying sunrise views.
Eighteen
people have been confirmed killed on the mountain, with a significant number of
them young students from Singapore who were on a school excursion.
Following
the disaster, Malaysian social media users and some Sabah officials have
focused on the nudists, suggesting that their actions angered the spirits and
led to the earthquake.
But Masidi
said the idea that the tourists' actions had caused the earthquake was
"misconstrued".
"I
never said that they actually caused the earthquake but their actions were
against the people of the largest tribe in Sabah. The mountain is a revered and
sacred site," he said.
A
traditional inter-faith cleansing ritual is expected to take place at the
mountain site soon involving Muslims, Christians as well as tribal leaders,
according to Masidi.
A strong
earthquake that jolted Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu has killed at least
11 people and left another eight missing on
Southeast Asia's highest peak,
a
government official says (AFP Photo)
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