Malaysia police hunt 5 terror suspects amid crackdown
Malaysian police said on Wednesday ( July 2) they were looking for a university lecturer and four others allegedly involved in terror activities.
They are now believed to be hiding in the Philippines.
The announcement comes as the authorities express concern about youths in the country being radicalised and recruited to fight in hotspots such as Syria. A Syrian terrorist video (above) featuring the use of the Malay language has also surfaced.
Police said the five wanted men included the Islamic studies lecturer and a stationery shop owner at Universiti Malaya, one of the country’s biggest universities.
Three of the men are suspected to be involved in recruiting and sending militants to the group Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS), police said in a statement.
Two others are believed to have been part of an extremist group in eastern Malaysia and have now joined Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines, police added.
Photo of suspects
They released photos of the suspects, AFP reported.
Universiti Malaya said in a statement that the 36-year-old lecturer, Mahmud Ahmad, had been absent and could not be contacted for four weeks, vowing “full cooperation” with the police.
In May, Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki, a 26-year-old factory worker, had the dubious honour of being Malaysia’s first suicide bomber linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS).
He is credited with blowing up 25 elite Iraqi soldiers at Iraq’s SWAT headquarters in al-Anbar on May 26, The Star reported.
Malaysian police have arrested more than a dozen people in recent months suspected of involvement in Islamic militant activities and intending to send fighters to war-torn Syria.
Source: AFP, The Star
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