The residents received a rude shock last month when news broke of a police raid that rescued eight boys from the tahfiz school, following allegations that they were abused.
A couple running the tahfiz school was charged in court last week with voluntarily causing hurt.
Zaiton Ismail, president of the Taman Tun Abdul Razak residents association, said the issue of unlicensed tahfiz schools had been a headache for the community for the past three years.
Zaiton said a number of tahfiz schools, some with up to 40 students, had been set up despite complaints lodged with the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) as far back as April 2018.
“There were just one or two tahfiz schools in the area in 2010, but they have mushroomed since then to nearly 10,” she told FMT, asking whether they had permits.
“Based on the land zoning laws, this whole area is residential. Nobody can simply switch its use to something else.”
She said the residents were also concerned about whether Covid-19 SOPs were being observed.
“This area is not designed to accommodate such a large number of people in one house,” she said.
Zaiton also questioned whether the tahfiz schools had met Fire and Rescue Department regulations, adding that the residents did not want a repeat of a 2018 fire at a tahfiz school in Kampung Datuk Keramat, which killed 23 people.
According to her, the guidelines only allow kindergartens to operate in residential areas, on condition that they have the consent of neighbours on both sides and are not located along a main road.
She said the residents’ association had met with MPAJ and the housing and local government ministry previously, and the council said it would give the tahfiz schools until the end of 2021 to vacate.
A resident, Syed Abdillah Syed Abbas Alhabshee, said the roads were not designed to accommodate heavy traffic as a result of the “commercialisation” of the area.
He also said garbage bins were overflowing and rubbish strewn “all over the place”, attracting monkeys which rummage through them.
Earlier this month, MPAJ president Mohd Fauzi Mohd Yatim said all 54 privately-run tahfiz schools in Ampang Jaya were registered following a legalisation and registration programme.
FMT has reached out to Fauzi for his reaction over the residents association’s latest claims.