Malaysian police have arrested 13 people believed to have “links” with the Islamic State (IS) group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a report said yesterday, as concern grows over the group’s appeal in the country.
The Star newspaper quoted Malaysian Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar as saying that 13 Malaysians were arrested in a raid on a restaurant in a Kuala Lumpur suburb. Bakar added they bring the number of people arrested since April this year over suspected links to the Islamic State to 36.
“We are constantly monitoring these kinds of activities. Militancy and terrorism have no place in this country,” he was quoted saying.
The story gave no further details on the nature of the alleged Islamic State links. Khalid and other senior police officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Authorities have previously confirmed at least 30 to 40 Malaysians had already joined the war in Syria, and that Islamic State supporters were actively seeking more recruits via social media.
Officials fear recruits would become radicalized and bring back violent extremist views. The story did not say whether the 13 arrested had planned to travel to Syria. In August, Malaysian police said they foiled a plot for a wave of bombings drawn up by radical Islamic militants inspired by the Islamic State group.
More than a dozen people arrested from April to June were formulating plans to bomb pubs, discos and a Malaysian brewery of Danish beer producer Carlsberg, police said, adding that some had planned to travel to Syria first.
Local media have previously reported that Malaysian factory worker Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki, 26, killed 25 elite Iraqi soldiers in a suicide car-bomb attack there in May.
Malaysia has previously been home to several suspected key figures in groups such as al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in