95 M’sians among 346 IS terrorists arrested so far

A TOTAL of 346 Islamic State terrorists – including 95 Malaysians – have been arrested in Malaysia as of Oct 6, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

There are still 53 Malaysians berjihad (waging holy war) in Iraq and Syria, he added.

“We believe that with the cooperation of Interpol and other international intelligence agencies, we will be able to combat terrorism,” he said.

Dr Ahmad Zahid, who is also Home Minister, was responding to a supplementary question by Tan Sri Annuar Musa (BN-Ketereh) at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Annuar’s earlier question was about the joint efforts between the Royal Malaysian Police and Interpol to fight cross-border, organised and cyber crime.

Dr Ahmad Zahid said the Government has forged cooperation with Interpol to combat cyber and organised crime, extremism and radical movements.

“The police and Interpol share intel and information on loss of travel documents, smuggling of firearms, biometric information, theft of artwork and vehicles, red notices and other similar notices or restrictions issued by the United Nations.

“The Royal Malaysian Police’s expertise was also enhanced through collaboration with Interpol on capacity building in forensic investigation, cyber crime and social media exploitation,” he said.

On human trafficking, Dr Ahmad Zahid said efforts to contain the crime were effective as the number of culprits brought to justice jumped from one in 2014 to 116 as of Oct 10 this year.

“This shows our seriousness to stop human trafficking. I would like to congratulate some of the non-governmental organisations, such as Tenaganita and Good Shepherd, for their efforts in helping us,” he said.