COPS MONITORING MILITANT EX-DRUMMER
Akel Zanial, formerly of the Ukays, will be arrested if he returns to Malaysia
POLICE will arrest Akel Zainal, a former drummer for the 1990s rock band the Ukays, if he returns to Malaysia. He has joined a militant movement since 2014.
According to sources, Akel is in Syria with other Malaysian fighters.
“Malaysian authorities have received information that Akel has joined the militant movement and is willing to die in war-torn Syria.
“However, they are ready to nab him if he returns to the country,” said the sources.
The sources said Malaysian authorities, especially police, were monitoring Malaysians becoming fighters in Syria and other countries.
It is believed that Akel had travelled to Syria after being influenced by another Malaysian, identified as Mohd Lotfi Ariffin, who was killed in 2014.
It was reported in an English daily several years ago that Lotfi, who was a former Internal Security Act detainee, had become the third Malaysian to die in the war.
Lotfi, who was born in Kuala Ketil, Kedah, was severely injured on the left arm and head when missiles rained on a militant base in east Hama.
In the same attack, Mohammad Fadhlan Shahidi Mohammad Khir, 21, was also killed.
Fadhlan was said to be the youngest Malaysian fighting in Syria.
The newspaper reported that Lotfi, who is a former Kedah Pas Youth information chief, was on a do-or-die mission in Syria, but he claimed on Facebook that he was not a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terror network.