Malaysia schoolgirls punished, squat in murky pond

KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 (Reuters) Two hundred school girls in Malaysia were forced by their hostel warden to squat in a murky pond after they failed to own up to a sanitary pad found in the toilet.

The girls were in the pond for an hour in heavy rain and the warden watched under an umbrella in Sarawak state on the island of Borneo, newspapers reported today. A picture on the front page showed the girls neck-deep in water.

''We do not want to point fingers at anyone now but we will take action against those who are wrong,'' the Star newspaper quoted education minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein as saying.

''This kind of punishment is inhumane. The water from the pond is dirty as waste from the canteen flows straight into it,'' Jimmy Kiu, chairman of the parent-teacher association was quoted as saying.

A school official said the warden was angry and decided to punish the girls after no one owned up the responsibility of leaving the pad in the toilet.

REUTERS SG ND1222