The Malaysian Insight

NILAI Business Centre, some 10km away from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, was swarmed with Counter Terrorism Unit officers in search of Islamic State-Khorasan fighters today.

Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division head Deputy Commissioner Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the unit is focusing on the area as it is highly populated with people from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We are combing this area due to the density of foreigners from these communities. It’s a proactive measure to see if there are any a spillage (of IS- Khorasan fighters) here,” he said.

The Khorasan terror group is a spillage of Islamic fighters group from Syria and Iraq that occupy a region in the north-eastern province of Iran.

Khorasan is the historic name for the area that covers Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of India, and other surrounding countries.

IS established a stronghold in Khorasan two years ago.

In 2015, IS now deceased spokesperson Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, announced an “expansion” of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s “caliphate” into the “lands of Khorasan”.

Online magazine TheDiplomat.com said 2015 saw rapid escalation of violence while Afghanistan saw more deaths from terrorism than ever before in the country, with around 800 more casualties than in the previous year.

It did not specify the number of deaths in the previous year, however.

Ayob said the four-hour long operation saw police and other enforcement agencies inspecting 742 premises.

“Some 312 officers from government related agencies took part in the operation,” he added.

Hundreds of foreigners mainly from Pakistan and Afghanistan were detained for checks.

Despite of having proper documents they were still brought to the Sepang police headquarters for further inspection.

Explaining this, Ayb said the public must understand that this is not a regular raid by the immigration or national registration department.

Besides checks with the Immigration and NRD, their details will also run through the Special Branch’s database as well as Interpol’s foreign terrorist fighter database.

“We have to… show our seriousness in combating terrorism,” he said.

He added that although some may feel the raid was harsh, majority were in support of the action.

Today’s raid is the third conducted by the Counter Terrorism unit. The first and second were carried out at Masjid India and Cyberjaya.

These saw nearly 700 foreigners hauled in for inspection.

The raids were carried out in preparation for the 29th Sea Games at the end of the month. – August 13, 2017.