Top Malaysian police officer warns of suicide attacks as Isis fighters return home
- Returnees from Syria and Iraq could attempt to spread the word through social media, says Malaysia’s inspector-general of police
- He also spoke about the hunt for Jho Low, saying the fugitive businessman’s days of hiding ‘will be ending soon’
“There has been a lot of hype that these [returnees] are frustrated fighters. They have not been able to implement all their ideals, practise what they have been trained for … so they want to do this [holy mission] back home to release their frustration,” Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
“All these possibilities are there when they return, based on the experience of countries who have dealt with returnees,” Bador said. “We will cover all these angles. We will deal with it cautiously.”
Bador said the failure of tech giants to identify and remove extremist messages swiftly has allowed impressionable young people to easily access harmful material, which ends up radicalising them.
Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Google are platforms commonly exploited by Isis and radical groups to disseminate their propaganda. Many of the Malaysians in refugee camps, as well as others who are in Malaysia, were radicalised online, Bador said.
“Once they are exposed to this highly inflammatory, extreme literature on religion … quoting the Koran out of context, they will set up their own chat group [to spread the word] and set up a cell,” said Bador, adding many of the radicalised youth are aged 20 to 23.
Malaysia arrests three Islamic State terror suspects
A total of 102 Malaysians travelled to Syria and Iraq to join Isis from 2013, and 40 were killed in combat. Nine died as suicide bombers, according to police.
Other terror threats in Malaysia come from members of Abu Sayyaf, a Philippine group that has links with Isis.
Early Tuesday morning, suspected Abu Sayyaf-linked gunmen were believed to have abducted 10 crew members from a fishing boat off the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah.
Abu Sayyaf is notorious for conducting kidnappings in the waters off Sabah and have beheaded foreigners after ransoms have not been paid.
In the past two years, Malaysian police have arrested scores of Abu Sayyaf fighters hiding in Sabah after running away from the southern Philippine island of Mindanao to escape Filipino security forces.
The Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom), which safeguards the waters of Sabah, will be restructured to maximise efforts to counter threats from Abu Sayyaf, Bador said.
Arrests of six suspects in Philippines fuel fears over spread of militancy
Bador, 60, was appointed as Malaysia’s police chief for a two-year term in May after serving as the director of Special Branch, the intelligence arm of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM).
During his years in the wilderness, Bador became a vegetable farmer in his hometown in Rembau, Negeri Sembilan.
Malaysian corruption fighter urges reform to avoid repeat of 1MDB
Low – who maintains he has done nothing wrong – is suspected of conspiring to launder billions of dollars from 1MDB and bribing officials to turn a blind eye to misappropriations.
Apart from Malaysia, Low is also wanted by the US Department of Justice.
Low was also charged in absentia in Malaysia for multiple counts of money-laundering.
The billionaire is somewhere in Asia but is expected to be back in Malaysia soon, Bador said, although he declined to give a time frame.
“Jho Low – we are very sure his days [away] will be ending soon,” Bador said.
The long arm of the US Justice Department was “everywhere”, and so Low and other 1MDB suspects in Asia would be unable to leave the region, he said. “They will not venture far.”
