KUALA LUMPUR: Police have thwarted a suicide bombing attempt in the country directed by the Daesh terrorist group with the arrest of a suspect in the federal capital yesterday.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar revealed that the 28-year-old Malaysian, whose gender was not stated, was detained at the Setiawangsa LRT station.
“The suspect admitted that he planned to launch a suicide bombing attack in Malaysia after receiving a directive from Daesh in Syria,” he said in a statement today.
He said the suspect was also responsible for putting up Daesh flags in several locations in Terengganu, Perak, Selangor and Johor.
The action was purportedly aimed at telling the Malaysian government to stop operations to arrest Daesh elements in the country, said Khalid.
Khalid also said three other Malaysians, also suspected to be members of Daesh, were detained by the Turkish authorities in Gaziantep whicle trying to sneak into Syria on Nov 15.
“All were repatriated on Jan 11 and were arrested upon their arrival at the KL International Airport in Sepang,” he said.
According to Khalid, they were recruited via Facebook and Telegram Application by Malaysian citizen, Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi @ Abu Hamzah who had joined Daesh in Syria.
Muhammad Wanndy, he said, was also responsible for planning to sneak in the three suspects into Syria.
The four suspects (including the one arrested at the LRT station), aged 23 to 28 years, comprised a husband and wife from Perak, an engineer and an insurance salesman. The latter two were from Terengganu.
All the suspects were arrested on suspicion of committing an offence related to terrorism under the Penal Code (Act 574) and will be investigated under the Security Offences Act (Special Measures) (SOSMA) 2012. --Bernama