KL arrests key figure in militant group

KL arrests key figure in militant group

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian police on Friday arrested a senior figure in an alleged
Islamic militant network in Southeast Asia accused of having al-
Qaeda ties and plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy and other
targets in Singapore, the national police chief said.

"I wish to announce the capture of one of our prime suspects
related to the Malaysian militant group," Norian Mai told a news
conference. "He is one of the leaders in the Jemaah Islamiyah in
Malaysia."

Norian said British-trained science professor Wan Min Wan Mat,
42, who used to teach at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in the
southern state of Johor, was picked up early on Friday under the
Internal Security Act.

He said the academic was believed to be the Johor leader of
Kumpulan Militan Malaysia, the local wing of Jemaah Islamiah, a
group authorities across several southeast Asian countries have
said is bent on creating a regional Islamic state.

Norian said Malaysian police had identified eight other
members of the militant group, and announced rewards of 50,000
ringgit (US$13,158) for help in their capture.

He refused to give detail of the allegations against Wan and
the other suspects, but said they were "certainly" connected to
13 alleged Jemmaah Islamiyah members who were arrested in
Singapore in August.

Norian also said Wan and the latest suspects were connected to
two Indonesians -- Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and Riduan Isamuddin, or
Hambali -- who led members of the militant group in Singapore.

"They received similar instructions from the same figures,
Hambali and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir," Norian said.

Malaysian authorities have arrested more than 60 Islamic
militant suspects in the past 18 months under a strict security
law allowing indefinite detention without trial. Most are alleged
to be members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Singapore has arrested more than 30 alleged members of the
group and accused them of plotting to blow up the U.S. Embassy
and other pro-Western targets in the city-state.

Among the suspects in Malaysia is Yazid Sufaat, a former
Malaysian army captain who is accused of letting senior al-Qaeda
leaders including two Sept. 11 hijackers use his apartment near
Kuala Lumpur for a meeting in January 2000.

Yazid is also accused of helping alleged Sept. 11 conspirator
Zacarias Moussaoui when he visited Malaysia later in 2000, and of
buying four (metric) tons of ammonium nitrate which officials say
was intended to be used to make truck bombs in the Singapore
plot.

Officials say Yazid was acting on instructions from Hambali.
Hambali's whereabouts are unknown, but Ba'asyir lives openly in
Indonesia and denies any link to terrorism.

Separately, Malaysia on Friday protested that new visa
restrictions imposed on its citizens by Canada suggest that
Ottawa views the mainly Muslim Southeast Asian country as a
terrorist center.

Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak said it was inappropriate for
Canada to impose the visa rule since Malaysia had taken measures
to fight terror and had arrested dozens of suspected Islamic
militants.

"It is unfair that we are targeted as a terrorists hub. It is
an unfair perception of Malaysia which has already taken tough
steps to combat acts of terrorism," he was quoted as saying by
the official Bernama news agency.

Malaysians had been exempt from the visa requirement because
both countries belong to the Commonwealth.

The Canadian government said Monday that Malaysians seeking to
enter the country would now require a "temporary resident visa"
because the Malaysian passport system was "vulnerable to abuse".