owned by Teh Eng Suan, a member of the Bentong Town Board and a leader of the local Chinese community in Bentong, exploding at the side of his desk. The blast killed three women instantly, and wounded three adults and four children, including Teh and his 10-year-old son. Police immediately screened the town and detained three suspects. In another instance on June 19, 1950, fighters entered the town and robbed a shop there, and were about to burn down a bus but escaped when police quickly arrived. The MNLA was also responsible for sabotaging telephone wires, destroying infrastructure, ambushing and killing local civilians An indigenous Orang Asli woman and her two children were also killed by Chinese bandits on May 16, while three people escaped with the woman's youngest son. At least two Europeans were also killed by fighters in the area. Attacks on military convoys and security forces continued in the area, even killing two policemen and wounding three others in an ambush on June 19, 1950. Security forces responded with raids, arresting suspected MNLA fighters and supporters. In response to the fighting, locals from the town of Karak volunteered as auxiliary volunteer police forces, with three Home Guards platoons of 33 men, "the great majority of them Chinese" to defend themselves from the MNLA, which blunted efforts by fighters to take over the area. About 80 indigenous Orang Asli were also resettled near the Karak police post after moved away from their original homes four miles from the town. A Nepalese Gurkha soldier, Corporal Dhanbahadur Rai of the 1/10th Gurkha Rifles was responsible for leading his unit to kill of seven MNLA fighters in the area over two months in 1951, was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry. Later on February 25, 1952, the Royal Air Force dropped 48 1,000-pound bombs on a group of 40 communists trapped in the hills next to Sungei Rolok near Karak by security forces, with authorities combing the area in the days after. The Disappearance of Brigadier M. D. Erskine During the Malayan Emergency, an Auster aircraft bound for Kuala Lumpur from Mentakab carrying Brigadier M. D. Erskine, Commander of the Second Guards Brigade and his pilot Captain John Churcher went missing near Karak It was last seen circling the area as if trying to land, and was believed to have crashed in the jungle. Erskine, then aged 44, had served