KANGAR:Fifty-two suspects in the shooting of members of the General Operations Force (GOF) will be remanded under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) for further investigation.

Perlis police chief Datuk Surina Saad said 23 suspects had completed their remand today.

"Today, 22 suspects will be remanded under the SOSMA act and one suspect who is released will be a prosecution witness.

"Meanwhile, 30 more suspects who complete their remand orders tomorrow will also be remanded under the SOSMA act.

‘’All the 52 suspects will be remanded for 28 days under SOSMA," she told reporters, here, today.

She said this to reporters after attending the 14th Perlis State Assembly sitting, here, today.

On Nov 24, a GOF member, Sergeant Baharuddin Ramli, 54, was killed while his friend Sergeant Norihan a / l Tari, 39, was seriously injured in a shootout with a group of smugglers, about 600 metres from the TS9 checkpoint in Padang Besar.

Surina said all 52 suspects, aged between 20 and 65 years old, would be charged under Section 130V of the Penal Code for committing an organised crime.

She said the police were was still waiting for a response from the Thai government to bring in three more Thai suspects detained there.

"We hope the suspects will be allowed to enter as they are the main suspects in this case," she said.

Surina said there would be several more arrests to be made to ensure that all suspects involved could be brought to justice.

-- BERNAMA