"They have been told that if they followed me, their father will commit suicide in prison, and I am also being faulted for sending him to a prison in Machang, Kelantan.
"They do not know that he ended up in prison for getting involved in drugs, and not because of me," Loh, who works as a chef at a hotel in Genting Highlands, Pahang, told Malaysiakini in an interview.
Loh's three children - a pair of twin girls aged 14, and a 10-year-old boy are currently under the care of the Perlis Welfare Department.
According to her, the kids were happy to see her during her visit to their place in Perlis on Feb 16.
The distraught mother also denied claims that she was not bothered about her children, stressing that she looked for them high and low, for three years.
Loh was hospitalised from injuries sustained from an accident when her then husband Nagahswaran Muniandy took the children without her knowledge and converted them to Islam.
The woman had also previously suffered domestic violence at the hands of the man, including being attacked with a hammer, sustaining a broken leg, and hospitalised with a wound on the head that required 27 stitches to fix.
She filed for, and obtained a divorce in 2019. She was also accorded temporary custody of the children, but attempts to obtain full custody got postponed when the Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented in 2020.
According to her, the children had been brainwashed into thinking that she was responsible for putting their father in jail, and that she had abandoned them.
During a meeting that happened when the children were with their aunt, the kids even told her that she was not their mother, as only their aunt and uncle had raised them, she lamented to the portal.
Loh's predicament had made headlines in recent days.
Many say that it is reminiscent of the case involving kindergarten teacher M Indira Gandhi, who had been longing to see her youngest child Prasana Diksa for 13 years, after her ex-husband abducted her and unilaterally converted her to Islam.
Meanwhile, Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin has claimed that the children have refused to meet their mother, and said that they want to attend an Islamic religious school.
He further alleged that the children had embraced Islam on their accord, without being forced by any quarters.
Source: Malaysiakini
Photo source: Malaysiakini, Perlis mufti Instagram