Police stumble on illegal immigrants while hunting TTDI robbers

The police yesterday stumbled on 29 illegal immigrants, including 13 children while in the midst of tracking down six armed criminals who had escaped into a forest reserve in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI).

Brickfields police chief SAC Muhammad Azlee Abdullah said however, the six managed to give police the slip and were believed to have fled to other areas.

He said the seven-hour operation, 'Ops Rantau Khas', beginning noon, was aimed at tracking down the six criminals.

He said about 100 personnel from the General Operations Force, Department of Civil Defence and the immigration department scoured over a 400-hectare area in three divisions, namely the Bukit Kiara Recreational Centre, Puncak Bukit Kiara and Sungai Penchala.

"We did not find the six criminals...on the other hand, we found five men, 11 women and 13 children, believed to be Indonesian nationals, in five squatter houses which they had built themselves using wood from a forested area in Sungai Penchala," he said in a media statement here.

Muhammad Azlee said the police would also conduct further checks to determine if the criminals were linked to the immigrants.

About 4.30am Wednesday, six men, believed to be armed with machetes escaped into the forest when they were stopped by the authorities for questioning.

Muhammad Azlee said the six were believed to be members of a gang of burglars which targeted homes in daytime.