290 foreigners detained in second anti-militancy operation

CYBERJAYA: Almost 100 students from four universities and a college here were among 290 foreigners detained for screening by the federal police Special Branch in its second anti-militancy operation this week ahead of the upcoming SEA Games.
Headed by the Special Branch's counter terrorism unit (CTU), the joint-operation started at 9pm and ended almost nine hours later netting the foreigners who are from 32 countries and comprised of 281 men and nine women.
CTU principal assistant director Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the students who were detained are from the Lim Kok Wing University, Multimedia University (MMU), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) and the FTMS Global College.
He said two-thirds of the detained foreigners are from Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
Ayob said those detained were taken to the Sepang district police headquarters and screened for links to terrorism and immigration offences.
He said after the vetting was completed, 57 foreigners including three women were held for not possessing personal identification documents and for overstaying.
Apart from the federal police, K9 unit, federal reserve unit (FRU), general operations force (GOF) bomb disposal unit, forensics unit and traffic unit assisting the CTU in the joint operation, other enforcement units namely the Immigration Department, Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB), National Registration Department (NRD) and Rela also took part in the operation.
Ayob said the operation was similar to that carried out on Sunday at the Jalan Masjid India shopping hub where nuclear radiation identification equipment provided by the AELB were used to trace radioactive material.
AELB director-general Hamrah Mohd Ali was also present at the operation.
Police said no suspicious material was found in the operations and the equipment will be put to use throughout the SEA Games as a security measure.