Police closely monitoring former militant detainees

The Royal Malaysian Police are closely monitoring the activities of former militant detainees in the country to ensure they do not rejoin the Daish militant group.

Bukit Aman Counter Terrorism, Special Branch Division principal assistant director, Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the police were aware of their movement and believed some former militant detainees were recruiting people in the country to join the extremist group.

"So far nine former militant detainees have been identified to have joined the Daish group in Syria.

"There are former militant detainees in Syria and they have an indomitable level of militant ideology," he told Bernama here.

Meanwhile, on claims that the Philippines was being used as a transit centre for Malaysians joining Daish in Syria, he said there was no further information on the matter so far.

However, he said currently four Malaysian Daish militants were affiliated with the Abu Sayaff group in southern Philippines.

Ayob Khan said, based on statistics, out of the 213 individuals detained, 33 women were believed to be involved in Daish activities in the country since 2013 till the middle of this year.

"Locals recorded the highest number detained at 186 people, followed by nationals from Indonesia (15), two each from Iraq, the Philippines and Russia, and one each from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kosovo, Bangladesh, Turkey and Egypt.

"The number of individuals arrested for involvement in Daish activities is growing with 82 people detained in 2015 from 59 people the previous year," he said.

He said the police found that 16 children were among 61 Malaysians still in Syria and involved in Daish.