Kuala Terengganu: Terengganu police have received intelligence report that Sky Kingdom sect leader Ariffin Mohamed, better known as Ayah Pin, has been sighted at Rantau Panjang in Kelantan.
State police chief Senior Asst Comm (I) Datuk Mohd Shukri Dahlan said, however, that police have yet to ascertain the exact spots the sect leader had frequented whenever he crossed over into Malaysia from neighbouring Thailand.
The elusive Ayah Pin was reported to be living in exile in Narathiwat, Thailand after the crackdown on his Terengganu commune in 2005.
At the height of his popularity, the 69-year-old self-styled prophet had four wives and 21 followers, including a police inspector and a drummer from a rock group.
Ayah Pin is also known for having built giant structures of a teapot, vase, umbrella, concrete boat and a "palace" at his commune in Hulu Besut.
SAC I Mohd Shukri said police still had Ayah Pin on their radar and had sought the help of their Kelantan counterparts to see if the sect leader would try to visit his commune.
"So far we have not received any reports of Ayah Pin entering Terengganu, nevertheless our surveillance is ongoing," he said when contacted here yesterday, adding that police intelligence ascertained that Ayah Pin has relatives in Pattani, Thailand.
The hype over Ayah Pin resurfaced after a Thai trader claimed he had sighted the former sect leader occasionally in the border town of Rantau Panjang.
On Tuesday, the trader identifying himself as Abey told The Star he had spotted Ayah Pin at the Malaysia-Thailand border recently and had provided a hazy picture, shot via his mobile phone, of a man resembling Ayah Pin buying food from a stall in Rantau Panjang.
He also claimed that Ayah Pin travelled in and out of Malaysia.
The Star, which went to Rantau Panjang to trace the sect leader, pursued a man resembling Ayah Pin riding pillion on a motorcycle that had a Narathiwat-registered number plate.
But the two sped off hastily to a border checkpoint upon seeing a Negri Sembilan-registered car tailing them.
The Star team went to Sungai Golok and were told by a technician at a hotel that there were almost two dozen people with the name Ayah Pin in southern Thailand.
Sukhree Abdullah, 30, said he knew of an Ayah Pin of Sky Kingdom living in a town called Bang Nan Sata about two hours' drive from Sungai Golok.
But he said he received news early this year that Ayah Pin of Malaysia had died of old age.
