BY TUNKU SHAHARIAH

SUNGAI PETANI: Azzem Izzat Ahmaduniawi Rahimin, who reappeared at his grandfather’s house in Selangor after vanishing for five days, claimed he was “led home” by his grandmother who died six years ago.

The 18-year-old law student had no memory of what had happened between his disappearance here on Sept 24 and his reappearance last Friday.

Ahmaduniawi Rahimin Baharum, 47, an assistant manager with a financial agency in Kuala Lumpur, said his son could not recall anything after he went to withdraw cash near a shopping complex here.

“My son said after he withdrew the money, everything turned white and blurry as he was about to leave the bank. His mind went completely blank until he woke up at my father-in-law’s house on Friday.

“He also has no memory of having returned to Kuala Lumpur or where he was during the five days until he saw the shadowy presence of his grandmother, who held his hand and guided him back to her home in Kajang, Selangor.

“When he woke up at his grandfather’s house, he asked why he was not at college,” Ahmaduniawi Rahimin said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Azzem, he said, was very close to his late grandmother Noraini Abdullah.

Ahmaduniawi Rahimin said he had taken Azzem for a physical check-up and the doctor had certified him physically fit.

“However, I will take him to see another doctor tomorrow (Monday) so we can check why he had suffered a temporary blackout during the five days. We will send him back to UiTM when this has been sorted out,” he said.

In a different missing person case, Shahril Mohd Yusoff, 22, the brother of Kedah Puteri Umno Shahanim Mohd Yusoff, who vanished on his way to work on Sept 20 and reappeared at his mother’s doorstep here last Thursday, also could not remember where he was during the nine days he went missing.

Shahanim said her brother had been crying and keeping to himself since coming home.

A psychiatrist from a private hospital in Penang said both victims might be suffering from a “dissociative disorder” or temporary pyschogenic amnesia after going through a traumatic or frightening event.

“The victims may be too overwhelmed or frightened by the events and are too distressed to talk about them,” he said.

The psychiatrist also said family members would need to provide them with plenty of tender, loving care.

“Of course, taking them to a psychiatrist or psychologist may speed up the recovery,” he added.