Hundreds of children and toddlers are being rescued from care homes where they were forced to perform sex acts on each other, tortured and raped as part of ‘religious treatment’

Malaysian police have rescued 402 children from 18 religious homes and arrested 171 suspects following disturbing reports that the minors were tortured and raped as part of religious treatment.

Police operations at homes in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan states on Wednesday found that some victims – aged between one and 17 – were forced to perform sex acts on each other, while others were punished with hot spoons, police Inspector-General Razarudin Husain told a news conference.

In his chilling statement, Razarudin told reporters that some of the suspects, aged between 17 and 64, allegedly touched the minors, which he said was part of religious treatment.

The children were also ‘punished with hot metal objects’ and those who fell ill in the homes were not allowed to seek medical attention until their condition became critical.

“There were some children, five years old, who were burned with a hot spoon when they made a mistake. The caretakers also touched the children’s bodies as if they were doing ‘medical checks’,” he said.

Many of the children were not orphans, but were sent to the homes by their parents for religious education.

“Child victims and religious sentiments were used to garner sympathy and money from outside,” he said.

After the rescue, the children have been temporarily housed at a police station in Kuala Lumpur, where they will undergo important health checks, which will take about two weeks.

Preliminary investigations have also revealed that many of the minors were not orphans but had been placed in nursing homes by their parents so that they could receive religious education, the Malaysian newspaper reported The Star.

The nursing homes are said to have ties to a large Islamic conglomerate, the Islamic Global Ikhwan Group (GISB). In a statement, the company denies any wrongdoing.

The raids were conducted following reports earlier this month of child exploitation, sexual assault and sexual abuse at another care facility in Port Dickson.

“Based on that, the police have opened eight investigation files; four in Selangor and four in Negri Sembilan,” Razarudin said.

Six suspects were arrested in the Port Dickson case that led to the large-scale operation on Wednesday. The suspects were between 20 and 40 years old.

Police then quickly launched an investigation into the GISB over allegations of child exploitation and have since confirmed that the two cases are linked.

According to Deputy Inspector General of Police Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, their findings showed that GISB’s entire operation is based on setting up nursing homes to collect donations.

The group denied the allegations on Wednesday and pledged to cooperate with authorities during the investigation.

The Facebook post reads: “Our position is very clear: we will always abide by the law and support the government’s ambitions to develop the country.

“The company will not engage in any activity that is contrary to the law, especially when it comes to the exploitation of children.”

Global Ikhwan’s website states that the company operates in a wide range of sectors, including food and beverage, media, medical, travel and real estate.

The company has more than 5,000 employees and offices in 20 countries, including a restaurant chain in London, Paris, Australia and Dubai.

Following the horrific incident, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission has called for stricter regulations in nursing homes.

“The problem is that these places are not properly regulated or monitored,” said Children’s Commissioner Farah Nini Dusuki Free Malaysia Today.

“We have a serious problem with surveillance and control, so we need to make the community more alert,” she said.

Of the 402 rescued children, 201 were girls and 201 were boys.

According to Razarudin, the arrested suspects included a teacher and dormitory janitors.