Perlis police seize hand grenade, homemade pistol

Perlis police yesterday seized a hand grenade and a homemade pistol at a Caltex petrol station here on Sunday morning.

Perlis Police Chief SAC Shafie Ismail said when the North Brigade General Operations Force (GOF) were conducting surveillance in the area, they saw two men behaving suspiciously while pushing their motorcycle which had run out of petrol.

"Upon further checks on the suspects and their bags, police found a pistol without bullets, an M67 hand grenade, 0.7 grammes of Syabu and 16 kilogrammes of ketum leaves," he told reporters at the Padang Besar district police headquarters here yesterday.

Subsequently, Shafie said, a local man and a Thai national were detained at 12.45am yesterday to assist investigations under Section 8 of the Firearms Act (Heavier Penalty) 1971, Section 8 of the Explosives Act 1957 and Section 12 (2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

He said police believed the hand grenade was obtained in Thailand because Malaysian security forces do not use such explosives and police are now investigating why the suspects had the grenade and pistol.

"Results of the urine tests found both men positive for drugs. The Thai national, aged 24, however did not have any previous criminal record while the 20-year-old man from Mata Ayer had a previous drug-related criminal record," he said.

Police also obtained confirmation from the special surveillance unit that the explosives and weapon were not connected to any separatist groups or Daish, he said.