Zahid Mahmood told the High Court that his staff told him that the dispute occurred during their weekly sports activities.
“The children told my schoolboys that they had ‘conquered’ the field and told my students to leave, despite our attempts to negotiate with them.
“We did not want to prolong or escalate the dispute and decided to move to another field,” he said, when questioned by deputy public prosecutor Othman Abdullah whether his students got into any fight with anyone prior to the fire.
However, Zahid said he had not seen the two teenage boys implicated in the school fire and could not ascertain if they were among the children involved in the futsal fight.
“I don’t know them,” he said.
The teenagers, now aged 17, claimed trial in January to 23 counts of murder. A total of 21 schoolboys and two teachers died in the fire.
When asked by the boys’ lawyer, Haijan Omar, on whether it was possible for people to climb over the wall to enter the school from the Malaysian Muslim Consumers’ Association (PPIM) office situated next to them, Zahid agreed that this was possible as the wall was not high.
The trial continues before Justice Azman Abdullah tomorrow.