SE Asia faces threat of Islamic State-styled terror attacks
India warns of IS threat, tightens vigil at embassies
KUALA LUMPUR: Southeast Asia faces the threat of Islamic State-inspired attacks designed to “glamorize terrorism”, a Malaysian minister said yesterday, voicing fears of battle-hardened fighters returning from Syria to launch Parisstyle attacks. In September, Malaysian police thwarted a plot to detonate bombs in Kuala Lumpur’s vibrant tourist area of Bukit Bintang. Other recent plots frustrated by Malaysian security forces included plans to raid army camps and seize weapons.
“I think the Paris situation can also be transplanted here, in Southeast Asia, where we also have fertile ground for recruitment of such operatives who will receive directives from Syria to carry out attacks,” Nur Jazlan Mohamed, Malaysia’s deputy home minister, said in an interview. “Such attacks, they hope, will glamorize terrorism and therefore attract more people to join their cause,” he said, singling out tourist and entertainment centers in the region as a favored targets. Terrorism is high on the agenda of world leaders gathered in Manila for the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people.
And the minister’s comments follow news of the execution this week of a Malaysian businessman in the Philippines by Abu Sayyaf, and Islamist militant group that had past links to AlQaeda but has more recently shown support for Islamic State. Estimates suggests that more that 500 Indonesians, over 40 Malaysians and a handful of Singaporeans have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of others were arrested or detained before they could leave the country. In Malaysia, 150 terror suspects have been arrested
since Islamic State rose to prominence in 2013.
IS franchise
Counter-terrorism will doubtless be on the agenda when Southeast Asian leader gather in Kuala Lumpur next week for a regional summit, and security has been ratcheted up in the Malaysian capital. “We have upgraded our security information at immigration to make sure there are no suspicious foreigners coming into country and activated anti-terrorism unit locally,” Nur Jazlan said. Enforcement officials and security experts fear Malaysian militants hiding in Southern Philippines are trying to bring together groups in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines to form a regional branch of Islamic State.
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the al Qaeda linked group that carried out the Bali bombings in 2002 that killed over 200 people, that could be used to build a network. JI has been most active in Indonesia, but has had cells in several other Southeast Asian countries, whereas there is an array of smaller Islamist militant groups, like Abu Sayyaf, operating more locally in the region. “These groups are just looking for an umbrella organization and IS is becoming that organisation for these disparate and separate groups to get together,” said Nur Jazlan.
Sidney Jones, the head of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict and an regional expert on terrorism issues said there is increasing pressure from Indonesian and Philippine supporters of IS to declare a province of IS in Southeast Asia that would cover Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. “So far Indonesian would-be terrorists have been pretty incompetent and their Philippine counterparts have been mostly interested in money,” she said. “If we got a few experienced professionals coming back from Syria to train local groups, that could be the gamechanger.”
India warns, tightens vigil
In another development, India has warned of Islamic State using regional militant groups to mount strikes in the country, and has increased security around the diplomatic missions of the United States, France and Britain among others, a government advisory said. The federal interior ministry said in the note issued to state police chiefs that Friday’s attacks in Paris in which 129 people were killed showed the intentions of Islamic State to expand its arc of operations beyond Syria and Iraq. Despite India’s large Muslim population, Islamic State has only been able to draw a handful of recruits from the country, although security officials say they don’t have a full picture, and that there could be more youth getting radicalized.
But some of the world’s deadliest militant groups, including the Pakistan-based Lashkar-eTaiba that carried out the Mumbai 2008 attacks, operate in India, and the fear is Islamic State might turn to them to target foreign interests in the country. “Though ISIS/ISIL has not been able to establish any significant presence in India, its success in radicalizing some youth, attracting certain section of the local population/Indian diaspora... or the possibility of piggybacking on terrorist groups operating in India have opened up the possibility of ISIS sponsored action on Indian territory,” the note said. — Agencies