Malaysia: Police Foils Bomb Plot on Top Officers, 14 Held

Local Editor

Malaysian authorities said Saturday they foiled a bomb attack on top police officers and arrested 14 suspected Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the terrorist "ISIS" group] operatives in a week-long operation.

The suspects included a senior Daesh member who is believed responsible for recruiting a Malaysian Daesh militant, Abu Ghani Yaacob, who was killed in Syria on April 17, Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement.

Malaysia's security agencies are on guard against Daesh spreading in the Muslim majority, but multi-ethnic Southeast Asian nation.

A few months ago, officials estimated nearly 50 Malaysians, most of them from the ethnic Malay majority, joined Daesh in Syria and Iraq.

Khalid said police believe the 49-year-old senior Daesh member detained in the northern state of Kedah was an active recruiter and was responsible for arranging for the group members to travel to Syria.

A 43-year-old woman who was believed to have been planning to sneak into the South Philippines to join the Daesh-aligned Abu Sayyaf group was detained in a separate raid in Perak state.

The 12 others detained in separate operations in various places including the capital, Kuala Lumpur, are believed to be from the same cell, Khalid said.

One of the suspects was believed to have passed on bomb-making instructions at the behest of a Malaysian Daesh recruiter based in Syria identified as Mohammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi.

The 14 suspects are aged between 20 and 49, and include cooks, a mechanic, a welder and a student.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team