Police foil terrorists' attempts to attack major national events in 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) crippled with swiftness, one after another, attempts by terrorist groups to carry out their activities, including planned attacks on several important events in the country this year.
Among the biggest events were the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games (KL2017) closing ceremony and the 60th National Day parade.
The attempts were thwarted with the arrest of 19 men, comprising eight locals and 11 foreigners, in six series of raids conducted from July 4 to Aug 30.
Among those detained by the police Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division together with the Bukit Aman Special Action Unit ,was a 25-year-old Filipino member of the Abu Sayyaf group who had sneaked into Sandakan, Sabah before travelling to the federal capital in December 2015.
The terrorist group which had made popular public events their targets for attack, continued to be hunted by police when three men including a Form Six student were nabbed at a restaurant in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan on Oct 10 for being involved in terrorist activities.
All the men were also suspected of involvment in the plan to launch attacks on the Better Beer Festival 2017, entertainment centres and places of worship in the Klang Valley, using homemade improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The country's security forces continued to take proactive measures to curb the influence of terrorist groups with the capture of 45 individuals categorised as foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) in raids conducted since Oct 6.
The moves were based on intelligence information obtained that Daesh elements from various countries, who were operating in Iraq and Syria, and who had started leaving the two countries after the loss of control of it's territories.
To cut the group's sources of funds and prevent them from acquiring firearms and explosives for their attacks, police detained 20 locals involved in financing terrorist activities since last year.
All the suspects were between the ages of 20 and 40, were operating individually and were believed to be channelling funds in small amounts to Daesh terrorists in order to evade detection by the authorities.
Meanwhile, 346 individuals linked to Daesh including 95 locals were detained since Oct 6.
From intelligence gathered by the Home Ministry, 53 Malaysians were involved in terrorism in Iraq and Syria, with 34 of them killed.
In this regard, the success of the Philippine security authorities in shooting dead Abu Sayyaf chief, Isnilon Hapilon in clashes in Marawi, southern Philippines was a positive development to end the incidents of abduction, especially in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone).
Hence, many parties are hoping for peace to return to the Sulu Sea so as to enable various economic activities to go on as before.
In the effort to curb terrorism, the authorities are stepping up monitoring with other countries, including by setting up the King Salman Centre for International Peace (KSCIP), with the cooperation of the Saudi Arabian government which commenced operation on May 30.
Apart from that, security control at all checkpoints nationwide including illegal border routes have been tightened to ensure terrorists hunted by the authorities in neighbouring countries do not sneak into Malaysia. — Bernama