Tackling extremism acts, especially suicide bombers is imperative - DPM

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said these bombers were fast becoming a bigger threat as they could inflict serious damage and could disguise as anyone including tourists, office workers, ordinary people, factory workers, students and even preachers.

"The material they used to make bombs could be sourced even from the very vicinity they planned to attack.

"The manual to make deadly explosives can also be obtained on-line," he said at the launching of the two-day International Conference on Deradicalisation and Countering Violence Extremism 2016 (IDC 2016) here, today.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak launched the conference.

Thus Ahmad Zahid said, the exchange of ideas and experiences was crucial and hoped tones of cooperation and mutual sharing could develop in the conference as well as in the years to come.

He said terrorism and violent extremism must be looked at with renewed urgency and a new as well as more comprehensive approach was needed in view of the constantly changing nature of terrorism and radical activities.

He alluded that Malaysia had taken various steps to address such threat by strengthening its legislations and intensified the operation of local law enforcement, intelligence and security forces.

"On top of that, we have also widened our international cooperation. It is now the time for us to enhance this cooperation and the effectiveness of our deradicalisation and rehabilitation programmes," he said.

He said the methods of rehabilitating terrorists should also be constantly reviewed and improved upon.