KAJANG: Four burglars were shot dead after they tried to attack policemen just minutes after they had assaulted and robbed a victim in Taman Hartamas Cheras here, early yesterday.

Items recovered by police

The robbers, armed with parang and sickles, are believed to be the remaining members of a gang that was crippled by police earlier this week when two of their accomplices were shot dead.

The four -- Hasanjaya, 48, Heriyanto, 38, Saparudin and Ardian Saputra, both 26 -- had yesterday just emerged from a jungle about 5.30am when they were stopped by a team of policemen on crime prevention patrol.

Selangor police chief DCP Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said the four suspects had broken into a house in Taman Bukit Permai about 4am, assaulted the victim before ransacking his house.

They then fled into a nearby jungle, emerging at a construction site in Taman Hartamas Cheras.
"When confronted by policemen, the suspects drew their weapons to attack them. The police team opened fire in self-defence and shot dead the four suspects," said Khalid.

Police recovered an undisclosed sum of cash, mobile phones, watches, a laptop and the suspects' passport.

The burglary victim, Lee Yan Lin, 39, later identified his belongings.

"I was sleeping when I heard a loud bang on my door.

But before I could figure out the source of the commotion, the door broke open and I was confronted by four men armed with weapons," Lee said.

"They ransacked the house but were not satisfied with the loot, so one of them assaulted me," he said.

The ordeal lasted about 30 minutes before the suspects fled the house.

Lee's mother, who lives opposite came over to see what the racket was about.

She took her son to the Pandan Indah police station where he lodged a report. Acting on the information, police swung into action.

They combed the area and when they went to the construction site, they saw the four coming out of the jungle.

Police believed that four were responsible for at least 19 break-ins in Malacca, Selangor and Negri Sembilan involving losses of almost RM600,000.

The gang was said to be violent as reports say that several of their female victims were either raped or molested.

Khalid revealed that the gang would use the kongsi at the construction site as a temporary hideout before moving on to different locations.

It is also learnt that two of the four suspects were members of a gang that escaped a police dragnet last Tuesday when two Indonesians were killed.

In that incident, Samduddin Hassan, 31, and Hasan Basri, 23, were shot when attacking police with a parang and sickle.

The incident happened at Jalan Pinggiran Tasik Kiambang about 4am.

Three Malaysians, including a woman, were apprehended in the incident and four Indonesians escaped.

Yesterday's operation was led by Selangor deputy CID chief Assistant Commissioner Gan Tian Kee and state serious crimes division head Superintendent Kho Siew Cheng.