KUALA LUMPUR, 1 June 2018:
Police arrested a housewife on polling day on May 9 on suspicion of planning to ram a car into voters at a polling station, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun revealed today.
The 51-year-old woman, who was arrested by a Special Branch Counter Terrorism squad in Puchong, had planned to ram the car into non-Muslim voters, he said in a statement.
He also said the woman, believed to be involved with a terrorist group, had also planned to ram a car loaded with gas cylinders – purportedly as explosives – onto non-Muslim houses of worship.
Mohamad Fuzi also said that between March 27 and May 9, the police arrested 15 people aged between 17 and 51 – including the housewife – on suspicion of being involved in terrorist groups, in police operations in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Kelantan and Sabah.
They included a 17-year-old secondary school student suspected of being a member of Islamic State, who had allegedly planned “lone wolf” attacks on churches, entertainment centres and Hindu temples around Kuala Lumpur.
The student had made six petrol bombs and tested one of them, Mohamad Fuzi said.
“The suspect had surveyed and filmed the target locations, as well as recorded a video warning of the impending attacks,” he said, adding that the video was uploaded to four Islamic State-linked mobile chatrooms shortly before the suspect was arrested.
Six of those arrested were Malaysians, two were Filipino nationals with permanent resident status, a married couple from northern Africa, four Filipino nationals and a Bangladeshi national, he added.
The Bangladeshi restaurant owner was suspected of smuggling arms to foreign militants, as well as six Philippine nationals aiming to join Islamic State-linked gunmen who occupied a Philippine town last year.
A North African married couple, wanted for being Islamic State members in their home country, was detained before being deported on April 14, Mohamad Fuzi said. He did not give their nationality.
Islamic State took responsibility for a grenade attack on a bar on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in 2016, when eight people were wounded. It was the first such strike in Malaysia.
– Bernama, Reuters