KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police said yesterday they were looking for a university lecturer and four others allegedly involved in terror activities and believed to be hiding in the Philippines.
The announcement came as authorities expressed concern about youth in the Muslim-majority country being radicalised and recruited to fight in hotspots such as Syria.
Police said the five, believed to be in the southern Philippines, included an Islamic studies lecturer and a stationery shop owner at Universiti Malaya, one of the country’s biggest universities.
Three are suspected to be involved in recruiting and sending militants to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has seized parts of Iraq and Syria.
Two others are believed to have been part of an extremist group in eastern Malaysia and have joined Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines.
Universiti Malaya said the lecturer, Mahmud Ahmad, 36, had been absent and could not be contacted for four weeks, vowing “full cooperation” with police.
Ex-military men ‘arming rebels’
Philippines: A security official said some dismissed men in uniforms were providing ammunition support to the Abu Sayyaf group blamed for deadly bombings and attacks in southern Philippines.
Senior Superintendent Angelito Casimiro, city police director, said they had received information about the participation of discharged men from the security forces in aiding militants.
“They are dismissed men in uniforms helping in the acquisition of ammunition (for Abu Sayyaf and other syndicates). That is one of the areas we are looking at,” Casimiro said.
He said they had coordinated with police and Armed Forces to track down those dismissed and suspected to be supplying support to the militants. He said some ammunition of Abu Sayyaf and lost command groups were seized in encounters the group engaged against government forces in Zamboanga, Basilan and Sulu.
Agencies
