KOTA BHARU, June 11 — Eleven years after one of Malaysia’s most heartbreaking missing persons cases, a survivor of the Pos Tohoi tragedy continues to live with painful memories that remain difficult to erase.
Miksudiar Aluj, now 22, said he can still remember the moment he saw the bodies of his friends in the forest after weeks of being lost in the wilderness near Pos Tohoi, Gua Musang, Kelantan.
“I saw the bodies of my friends in front of my eyes, I could only cry,” he recalled when contacted on Thursday.
Miksudiar was only 11 years old when he and six other Orang Asli children went missing in the Bertam forest on August 23, 2015. The incident later shocked the nation and became one of the most tragic cases involving missing children in Malaysia.
The group consisted of seven Orang Asli pupils from SK Tohoi who had reportedly left their hostel after fearing punishment for bathing in a river near the school without permission. What began as a disappearance soon turned into a major search and rescue operation involving security forces, government agencies, and local villagers.
After 47 days in the forest, Miksudiar and another child, Norieen Yaakob, were eventually found alive. However, five of their friends — Ika Ayel, Haikal Yaakob, Sasa Sobrie, Linda Rosli, and Juvina David — were later found dead deep inside the forest.
According to Miksudiar, the children struggled to survive without food and proper shelter. He said his friends eventually died from starvation as their bodies became too weak to continue searching for food.
He explained that he managed to stay alive by eating leaves and forest fruits while remaining close to river areas. Occasionally, he would venture out to look for food whenever hunger became unbearable.
Despite surviving the ordeal, Miksudiar said the emotional scars remain with him to this day.
Now living in Kampung Gawin near Pos Gob, Gua Musang, he works alongside his family cultivating vegetables. However, he admitted that he has never fully recovered from the trauma of the incident.
He revealed that he has avoided entering the forest since the tragedy occurred and continues to experience nightmares related to the event.
“To this day, I still dream about the incident. If possible, I want to forget it,” he said.
Miksudiar also shared that although he occasionally meets Norieen, the two have never discussed what happened during those 47 days in the forest.
According to him, both of them prefer not to revisit the painful memories and are grateful to be able to continue living their lives. He noted that Norieen is now married and has a child.
Reflecting on the days they were lost, Miksudiar said he could hear people calling out while search teams were looking for them, but he was unable to locate where the voices were coming from. Throughout the ordeal, he said the forest seemed endless, with only trees surrounding them.
Following his rescue, Miksudiar suffered severe malnutrition, significant weight loss, and emotional trauma. He later received medical treatment and counselling at the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital.
The tragedy remains one of the darkest chapters in Malaysia’s search and rescue history. At the time, then Kelantan Police Chief Datuk Mazlan Lazim confirmed that Miksudiar and Norieen were found sheltering beneath the roots of a tree along the banks of Sungai Perias, approximately 3.3 kilometres from the search and rescue operations centre.
More than a decade later, while life has moved forward for the survivors, the memories of the five young lives lost in the forest continue to serve as a painful reminder of a tragedy that touched the hearts of Malaysians across the country.
