Former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi backed the listing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist group in 2014, five years after the militant organisation was defeated by the Sri Lankan armed forces in a civil war.

In an affidavit-in-reply to a legal challenge to delist LTTE from the gazette, the former deputy prime minister said that the listing of LTTE was valid after taking into account the lingering risk to national security posed by remnants of the group that fled to Malaysia.