Police said the Islamic State (IS) operative it arrested at Setiawangsa LRT yesterday was in the midst of carrying out a suicide attack in the country.
Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said this was after the operative received instructions from Syria.
“The suspect admitted that he was planning to launch a suicide attack after receiving instructions from an IS member in Syria,” he said in a statement this afternoon.
Khalid confirmed the 28-year-old suspect is a Malaysian citizen.
He added that the suspect was also responsible for the IS flags which have mysteriously appeared in several areas.
“The suspect is the person responsible for putting up the IS flag in a few locations in Terengganu, Perak, Selangor, and Johor, as a warning to the Malaysian government to stop the arrests against IS elements in Malaysia,” he said.
Earlier today, Khalid revealed on Twitter about the suspect’s arrest where weapons and IS documents were also seized.
In a related development, Khalid said police also arrested three more Malaysian suspects for being involved in IS activities on arrival at the KL International Airport on Monday.
He said the trio were arrested on Nov 15 last year in Gaziantep, Turkey, by Turkish authorities, for trying to slip into Syria to join IS.
“All of them were deported to Malaysia on Jan 11 and were arrested on arrival,” he said.
Khalid said the trio were recruited by Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi @ Abu Hamzah, also a Malaysian citizen who has joined IS in Syria.
The police chief said he recruited the three through Facebook and messaging app Telegram.
“He was also responsible for arranging for the three to slip into Syria,” said Khalid.
Without specifically identifying the respective individuals, Khalid said all four suspects who were arrested were aged between 23 and 28.
Two of them were a couple from Perak while the other two suspects were from Terengganu, who were respectively an engineer and an insurance agent.
Meanwhile, Selangor and Johor police told Bernama today they have stepped up security in the two states.
Selangor Police chief Abdul Samah Mat told the national news agency that security was being beefed up at public places such as shopping malls, entertainment outlets, tourist attractions, and entry-exit points such as airports and ports.
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