Friend expresses shock over 14-year-old girl's intention to join IS

A friend of a teenage girl who was detained by police on Tuesday, believed to be on her way to join the Islamic State (IS) took the news by surprise.

Muhd Khairi Samsuri – when met at Parit Unas here – described the suspect as 'very friendly' and 'intelligent' in her studies.

In fact, the suspect also showed a keen interest to master several foreign languages such as Mandarin and Russian, apart from religious studies.

Muhd Khairi admitted to not being close to the suspect, but they last met while attending a religious lecture in Parit Unas, earlier this year.

He said the suspect told him of her intention to delve deeper in her Islamic studies by studying at a madrasah (religious school) in Kuala Lumpur.

Muhd Khairi said they had lived in the same village and attended the same school in Parit Bakar here.

Meanwhile, the suspect's uncle, Said Azman said he had never imagined that his niece could be easily influenced by the extremist group.

He said, they have a good family relationship and described the eldest of three siblings as kind-hearted. The suspect, however, had lost her mother several years ago.

On Feb 18, policemen from Bukit Aman’s Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division arrested the 14-year-old at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. She had reportedly planned to marry a Malaysian university student in Egypt before joining the IS in Syria.

The suspect was reportedly influenced by the group after interacting with two individuals on Facebook.