‘IS likely to strike Myanmar over treatment of Rohingya’

MYANMAR FACES a growing danger of attacks by foreign supporters of Islamic State (IS) recruitedfromsoutheastasiannetworksinsupport of persecuted Rohingyas, Malaysia’s top counter-terrorism official has said.

Malaysian authorities have detained a suspected IS follower planning to head to Myanmar to carry out attacks, the head of the Malaysian police counter-terrorism division, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, said in an interview.

The suspect, an Indonesian whom he did not identify, was detained in Malaysia last month. The suspect was scheduled to be charged on Wednesday for possession of materials linked to terrorist groups, which carries a seven-year jail term or fine, Ayob Khan said. More militants are likely to try to follow his lead in support of the Rohingya cause, Ayob Khan said.

“He was planning to perform jihad in Myanmar, fighting against the Myanmar government for this Rohingya group in Rakhine State,” Ayob Khan said.

A Myanmar army sweep since October in the north of Rakhine State, on its border with Bangladesh, has sent about 34,000 members of the Rohingya minority fleeing into Bangladesh, the United Nations says.

Residents and rights groups accuse security forces in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar of summary executions and rape in the army operation, launched in response to attacks on police posts on Oct. 9 that killed nine officers.

The government of Aung San Suu Kyi denies the accusations of abuse.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay told Reuters an official report into October’s violence in Rakhine state found no evidence of an Islamic State presence there or that the attacks were linked to IS. REUTERS