Mahathir fears Malaysia could be next after Bali

Mahathir fears Malaysia could be next after Bali

Agencies, New Delhi/Kuala Lumpur

Shocked by the carnage in Bali and the Philippines, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned on Friday that his country could be the next target for international terrorists.

"In the case of terrorist activities, you can never determine where they are going to attack next," the Malaysian leader told a news conference at the end of a three-day visit to India.

"Of course, Malaysia may be subject to the same kind of attacks as in Bali and Philippines," Mahathir said, adding that fears of militancy would hurt foreign investment in the region.

Events of the past week have shaken people's sense of security in a country that prides itself as a peaceful haven, safe from the political and religious violence that plagues its poorer, populous neighbors.

"I believe Malaysia is one of the likely targets," Abdullah Md Yassin, a 57 year old retired civil servant told Reuters.

"I think it's just a matter of time before it happens."

Malaysia cracked down on militancy even before the U.S. launched an international war on terror. In the past 18 months police arrested nearly 70 suspects, including five this week.

The men, held under detention without trial, are believed to be members or have links with Jamaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant group connected to Osama bin Laden al-Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Malaysian police increased vigilance around nightspots where westerners congregate, and checks at entry and exit points to the country became more rigorous in the wake of the Bali blasts.

On Thursday, more blasts killed seven people and injured over 160 in the main bazaar of the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, which is at the heart of a Muslim insurgency.

"There are rumors going around...," says Albert Kwan, a bank worker in Kuala Lumpur. "They say Malaysia is next on the list after the Philippines."

"People don't really believe it but they are conscious of the security risk Malaysia faces as one of the neighboring nations."

Meanwhile, Malaysia has protested to the United Nations about a report that links Mahathir's government to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, reports said on Friday.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said excerpts from a book on al-Qaeda that were included in a UN monitoring group's report contained untruths about Malaysia, the news reports said.

In the book, Inside al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, Rohan Gunaratna, a research fellow at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, alleges that several Malaysian political groups have historical links with Muslim separatist groups in the Philippines, which in turn had ties with al-Qaeda.

Mahathir's National Front coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957, was one Malaysian group that had "ideological and political links" with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim rebel group which has been fighting for a separate homeland in the southern Philippines, the book claims.

Abdullah said the government had lodged a formal protest with the United Nations on Oct. 7 for including excerpts from Gunaratna's book in a report to the UN Security Council.