Two youths planning to join IS stopped at KLIA

Two youths, a woman and a man were detained by police on suspicion of attempting to join the militant group, Islamic State (IS) in Syria in separate operations at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Dec 24 and 28.

Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in a statement yesterday said the first arrest involved a 27-year-old woman from Negeri Sembilan, who was a former private institution of higher learning student in the Klang Valley.

"The suspect who was influenced to join the IS group in Syria after watching the group's propaganda video through YouTube and interacting with IS members via facebook, was detected in November 2014," he said.

He said the suspect later married an IS member, a Moroccan in mid-December 2014 via skype video call.

He said the IS member had managed to convince the woman to join the group in Syria.

Khalid said the second arrest involved a 22-year-old man from Terengganu who was studying at a public higher education institute in Perlis.

He said the suspect was influenced into joining IS after watching the video on YouTube and interacting with several Malaysian and foreign IS members in Syria via facebook.

"The suspect had planned to be involved in a suicide attack in Syria," he said.

Khalid said the two youths were suspected of offences relating to violence under the Penal Code and would be investigated under the provisions of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.

With the latest arrests, police have detained 51 local individuals for attempting to join or assist the IS militant group.