Nabbed: Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division officers detaining the 39-year-old aircraft technician in Selangor.
KUALA LUMPUR: A policewoman, an aircraft technician and an imam were among 15 suspected Islamic State (IS) militants detained in a major swoop across seven states.
The suspects, aged between 22 and 49, including four women were detained in Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Terengganu between Tuesday and yesterday by the Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division (E8).
The arrests come on the heels of the latest IS attack in Brussels, which left 31 people dead and more than 200 injured.
The latest swoop brings to 177 the total number of militants arrested since February 2013.
The three were detained along with four private company workers, four businessmen, a housewife, a student and two jobless suspects.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the suspects were believed to have arranged the entry of two foreign militants into the country before securing safe passage for them to another country in the region.
It is believed the two Uighurs were headed for Indonesia.
Women in the net: Three of the suspects being led away by police after the arrests. Four of the 15 arrested were women.
“We also believe the terror cell collected funds to channel to an IS affiliate terror group in southern Philippines.
“They also collected funds from IS sympathisers in Malaysia to fund Malaysian militants in Syria,” he said in a statement yesterday.
The suspects were also collecting chemicals used to make bombs and were also responsible for hacking into a few government websites, added the IGP.
“This cell was also taking orders from known Malaysian militant Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi and was also actively recruiting more IS members and arranging their passage to Syria.”
Khalid also did not rule out the possibility that the terror cell had cooperated with other terror groups in the region.
Sources said the policewoman, a 35-year-old corporal from Selangor, was the first police personnel held for links with IS.
“She had problems with her husband for quite some time and was planning to go to Syria before she was detained,” a source said.
Security has been tightened across many countries following the bombings in Belgium.
Belgian police have identified the two suicide attackers as Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui with links to Salah Abdeslam, the key suspect in the Paris terror attacks last year, who was arrested in Brussels on Friday after four months on the run.
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