IS Threat is Indeed Real

New Straits Times

10 July 2016

MALAYSIANS were horrified this past week when they learned that the attack at an entertainment outlet in Puchong, Selangor, last month had been perpetrated by Islamic State (IS) militants.

True, there had been rumours to the effect. But the gravity of the words uttered by Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar still stung, still shocked.

Despite more than 200 people – IS militants, wannabe militants and sympathisers alike – being detained so far, we still believed there could not be an attack on home soil. We still wanted to believe.

There were those who didn’t believe news reported prior to this that police had managed to foil attempts by IS to launch attacks here, or kidnap certain leaders. Sources told this paper that security forces, in particular Special Branch Counterterrorism Division operatives, had managed to foil nine previous attempts by IS militants here. Yet still we did not believe.

… Andrin and two other experts on terror – Universiti Utara Malaysia’s Professor Dr Kamarulnizam Abdullah and Dr Rohan Gunaratna of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore – agree that the borders are too easily breached and militant organisations know this.

Categories: