By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR (AA) – Malaysian police have arrested seven men linked with terror movement Daesh and other militant groups, while plotting bomb attack in capital Kuala Lumpur.
Inspector General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar said two of the seven men detained, were found to have received orders from Malaysian-born Daesh leader Mohamad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi to launch an attack in Malaysia using “Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device”.
“The duo – a Malaysian and an Indonesian – were arrested by the police’s counter-terrorism division, before they execute the instructions and slipping out to Syria’s Daesh base,” Bakar said in a statement today.
The police chief noted that the Indonesian suspect was deported from Turkey last June after an attempt to slip into Syria to join the Daesh group.
Mohamad Jedi, a Malaysian-born Daesh leader based in Syria, had previously led the militant group’s first grenade attack in Malaysia last June.
One of the other detainees was a 37-year-old suspect arrested on February 23, believed to be a member of an East Asian terrorist group which have made Malaysia their transit and shelter.
“He entered Malaysia in 2011 using a student pass that is believed to be counterfeit from a public institute of higher learning in the Klang Valley,” Bakar said, adding that initial probe showed that the suspect was arranging for other members of the militant group to enter Malaysia.
The remaining four arrested are Yemeni nationals nabbed on Feb 26, believed to be members of a rebel group in Yemen, said Bakar.
“Preliminary investigations found that they are also involved in the activities of a counterfeit travel document syndicate. Also seized in this operation are various international passports and cash in various currencies that is believed to be channeled to the rebel group,” he said.
The seven suspects were arrested for suspected commission of terrorism offenses under the Penal Code and will be probed under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act’s procedures, while one of them is also arrested under the Immigration Act.
