Gunfights always lead to a ‘grave’ end

Posted by noelbynature under Heritage Sites and Trails, National History
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… in this case, quite literally in two senses of the word. Jerome recounts a gunfight that happened in the December of 1972 which led to deaths of two gun smugglers, the Hassan brothers at Jalan Kubor. ‘Kubor’, of course, is the Malay word for grave, and the cemetary still stands at the Kampong Glam district, beside the historic Malabar Mosque.

Jerome recalls:

As I looked out at Jalan Kubor from the safety of the car, I remembered an incident that happened at the cemetery there when I was a boy of eight, that had somehow left a lasting impression on me. In the incident, the final scene of what was a real-life drama had been played out at the Madrasah Aljunied Cemetery at Jalan Kubor. This involved two of Singapore’s most dangerous criminals, Abdul Wahab and Mustapha, the Hassan brothers on a December’s evening in 1972. Cornered at their hideout at the cemetery and desperate and outnumbered during what was to be a final confrontation with the police on the 16 December 1972, Wahab shot his younger brother and turned the gun on himself, bringing an end to a one and a half month long reign of terror which had begun with Wahab’s escape from Changi Prison where he was being held for armed robbery.

The showdown at Jalan Kubor was not final, and you can read about more gun incidents in 1970s Singapore in Jerome’s post. Another story about gun crime in (1960s) Singapore can be read at Uncle Dicko’s blog here. Gun crime is rare in Singapore today, thanks to strict gun control laws. The last high-profile gun crime I remember in recent history was the murder case involving Tan Chor Jin aka the ‘One-Eyed Dragon’, who conducted a secret society execution in a Serangoon flat before fleeing Singapore in 2006. He was quickly apprehending in Malaysia and was executed last year.

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