Malaysian police tighten boat checks
Malaysian police tighten boat checks
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian police in Sabah state on Borneo island have tightened checks on boats arriving from the southern Philippines to halt gun-running by Islamic militants in Malaysia and Indonesia, news reports said on Tuesday.
The order was made following last month's arrest of two Malaysians and 13 Indonesians by marine police, who found a large weapons cache on their boat heading towards Indonesian waters.
The weapons, which included two M-16 assault rifles, six revolvers and 74 rounds of ammunition, were believed bought from Sitangkai island in the southern Philippines and were being smuggled to Indonesia's Ambon province, where there have been bloody Muslim-Christian clashes.
The two Malaysian men arrested were members of the Jemaah Tabligh Malaysia (JTM) group. One man was a former engineer with the army while the other was a gems dealer.
Malaysia's police chief Norian Mai said marine police had been ordered to step up inspections on Philippine boats, especially passenger boats.
Norian, however, declined to say if the weapons were bought from the Philippine's Abu Sayyaf rebel group, or if the Malaysian Islamic militants had links with Philippine or Thai Muslim groups.
"At the moment, we can't say of there is any connection with Thai or Philippine groups, but what we know is that there is cooperation between the Sabah group (JTM) and Indonesian groups," he was quoted as saying by the Star daily newspaper.
Malaysian authorities have begun cracking down on Islamic militant groups, some of which have links with Middle-Eastern and Afghan extremist groups, after becoming alarmed over recent incidents in the multiracial country where religious freedom is guaranteed.
Police have linked these groups to arms heists at two army camps, a botched bank robbery, two blasts at a church and Hindu temple, and the shooting to death of a Christian politician.
The link between the Malaysian and Indonesian Islamic militants was confirmed when a Malaysian man from a "jihad," or "holy war," group was detained over a bomb blast at a Jakarta mall three weeks ago.
He was allegedly among a group of 10 other Malaysians, who were also blamed for other bomb blasts in Indonesia and who were believed to have fought in Ambon.
Last month, Malaysian police arrested 10 locals said to be members of the Malaysian Mujahiddin Group (KMM), which allegedly plans to topple the government by violence and attacks on non- Moslems.
The KMM's activities were revealed after four members botched a bank robbery in May. Police later found the group's secret arms cache, which included home-made bombs, in a jungle in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysian police have launched an investigation to establish whether local Muslim militants are funded by foreigners, a senior minister said on Tuesday.
"If the present mind-boggling activities of the so-called Mujahideen Malaysia have taken root by way of foreign canopy, where do they get their money from?
"Could it be from very wealthy mullahs beyond our shore?" Law Minister Rais Yatim asked participants at a two-day anti-money- laundering seminar west of Kuala Lumpur.
Rais told a news conference later that police were probing a foreign cash link to the "Malaysian Mujahideen Group", which is accused of waging a "holy war" and is blamed for a spate of crimes including bombing a church and an Indian temple.