Cops were RIGHT
KUALA LUMPUR: A warning by police last month of a planned militant attack on the Better Beer Festival was not based on probability but derived from facts.
Yesterday, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun revealed the arrests of three Malaysians who had built high- impact improvised explosive devices (IED), or homemade bombs, that they planned to use at the event.
The suspects, a 19-year-old Form Six student, a 34-year-old ex- army serviceman and a 25-year-old building contractor, were arrested in Kelantan on Oct 10 by the Special Branch Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU).
In a press conference at Bukit Aman, Mohamad Fuzi said the arrests prove the warning of an attack on the beer festival was not fabricated, adding that police seized several assembled IEDs and bomb components from the suspects.
The IEDs had a “kill zone” radius of 30m.
Fireworks, matches and a book on bomb-making were also among items recovered from the student’s house.
Mohamad Fuzi said the bombs were made of pipes filled with explosive powder and ball-bearings as projectiles.
He said police had foiled the
trio’s plans of launching an attack at the event and other targets such as places of worship of non-Muslims, entertainment centres and the city centre here and Selangor.
“Our statements prohibiting the Better Beer Festival (were based on) a serious security threat and we vehemently deny allegations by certain parties that the police were fabricating facts to scare the organisers of the event.”
He said the student, who was believed to be the mastermind of the plot, had tested two IEDs he built with the other two suspects at an open field behind his house on Sept 28, but only one of the devices was successfully detonated.
The ex-soldier from Kota Baru, who is now a construction worker, had helped raise funds for building the bombs.
Mohamad Fuzi said the man and the contractor, from Pengkalan Hulu in Perak, were arrested at a restaurant.
The contractor was found to have been in contact with slain Malaysian IS militant Mohammad Wanndy and members of the “Gagak Hitam” cell, who were behind the Movida Cafe bombing in Puchong on June 28 last year.
“The student is from the Sri Aman secondary school in Pasir Puteh and was to sit for his STPM examination on Nov 6. Although he is in custody, we will make arrangements with the Education Department to enable him to sit for the exam.”
Investigations are ongoing to determine if other individuals had links to the trio.
On how the suspects learnt how to make the bombs, Mohamad Fuzi said the former soldier would have known about explosives and such information is also available online.
“Since 2013, there have been eight attempts by militants to pull off such attacks here but we managed to stop it. My men at the CTU, headed by Datuk Ayub (Special Branch deputy director DCP Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay) have been working round-the-clock to ensure our country is safe from such threats. They are doing a wonderful job.”
Mohamad Fuzi said since January this year, police have arrested 78 suspected militants nationwide, adding that intelligence reports also showed there are still 53 Malaysians in IS cells in Syria and at least five in South Philippines.