Hundreds held in Malaysian anti-terror operation

A HUGE operation by the Malaysian authorities to weed out potential terror threats in Kuala Lumpur ahead of this month’s SEA Games has yielded hundreds of illegal migrants as well as a suspected leader of a passport forgery syndicate.

Sunday’s raid in Kuala Lumpur’s city centre saw 200 personnel – mostly armed police, accompanied by officers from the Immigration Department, the National Registration Department and Civil Defence Force – sweeping through the streets and combing apartment blocks around the Masjid India enclave.

They were searching for terror suspects, including 16 foreign militants deported to Malaysia from Turkey after they were thwarted in their attempts to join Islamic State.

A total of 409 arrests were made during Operation Joker, in which personnel in tactical combat gear were forced to break down the doors of some apartments when residents refused them entry, revealing dozens of illegal migrants hiding inside with little or no documentation. Out of the 409 detained, 275 were released as their papers were in order, while the rest were still being screened by the authorities.

The scale of the exercise, which alarmed city dwellers out shopping at the weekend, underlined the challenge Malaysia faces in its efforts to stamp out militant activities.

Although the police dragnet failed to nab any of the 16 IS targets, counterterrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay gave his assurance that the police would “continue to probe further and remain alert”.