IGP Reveals Plots Of Nabbed IS Terror Suspects

KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 (Bernama) -- Abducting VIPs, storming strategic locations and setting up an IS regime in Malaysia - these were among the plots of the 17 people suspected to be IS militants arrested by police last Sunday, according to Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar. He said they had picked strategic locations in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya as the targets of their planned attacks. The suspects were picked up in an operation conducted by the Counter Terrorism Division of the Police Special Branch around Kuala Lumpur and Kedah as they held clandestine meetings to discuss the plots to strike in the Klang Valley, he said in a statement Tuesday. "The suspects were between the ages of 14 and 49, and among them were former senior members of the outlawed Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM) or Militant Group of Malaysia who had been arrested before, religious teachers, security guards and military personnel," he said. Khalid said the most senior member of the group of suspected terrorists was a 49-year-old former KMM member who was arrested in June 2001 under the now-defunct Internal Security Act. The suspected terrorist underwent training in Afghanistan in June 1989 and in Sulawesi, Indonesia, in November 2000, and had been involved in a plot to seize weapons from the Guar Chempedak Police Station in February 2001, said Khalid. "The suspect went to Syria in August last year to undergo military training and returned to Malaysia last December. "Another suspected terrorist is a 38-year-old teacher from Kedah, who went to Syria in September last year to join the so-called IS militant group and returned to the country last December," he said. Among those detained were two military personnel, a security guard who had access to weapons and a member of an Indonesian terrorist group who was a former member of the Jemaah Islamiah and an expert in handling firearms. Khalid said these cell members also planned to rob banks to fund their activities and seize weapons from military camps and police stations. Khalid said they also planned to get their supply from a terror group operating in a neighbouring country. He said that with the recent arrests, the Counter Terrorism Division of the Police Special Branch had detained 92 Malaysians suspected to be involved in militant activities since the operation was launched in February 2013. Those detained were nabbed for offences under the Penal Code and would be investigated under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012. -- BERNAMA