PETALING JAYA: The individual who killed two policemen and injured another earlier this morning at a police station in Ulu Tiram, Johor Bahru is said to be connected to Southeast Asian Islamist militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
The group was behind the Bali bombings in October 2002 that took 200 lives and in 2009, JI also targeted the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta. JI is allegedly tied to Al-Qaeda.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain during a press conference today said five members of the suspect’s family have since been arrested.
He said those arrested were between the ages of 19 to 62 years old, with one of them being his father who is also believed to be linked to JI.
He also confirmed that material from the Islamist group was discovered at the suspect’s residence.
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Razarudin added that the suspect had made preparations before the attack and found that he had no criminal record prior to the incident.
“The bag used as a shield where materials such as paper and cloth for his fight with the police.
“From what we have noticed, maybe he (the suspect) came to the station to get firearms from the police for his agenda that we do not know of at present time,” he said.
Not only that, Razarudin has instructed the police to gather all JI members residing in Johor to be identified and assist in this investigation.
The New Straits Times reported that police have managed to identify over 20 JI members in Johor.
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Not only that, police have also arrested two other individuals that entered the Ulu Tiram police station before the attack.
“There were two individuals who came into the police station to get opinions regarding an incident where they were molested two years ago.
“The two of them are university students. We have arrested the two complainants, the man and woman who came to the station - if this incident happened two years ago and they came at 2am to get an opinion from the police, it does not seem logical.
“So we want to investigate further hence we apprehended both of them,” he clarified during the press conference.
Razarudin also confirmed that the police officer injured during the attack is in stable condition and that security will be tightened in all police stations in light of the attack.
The suspect had reportedly stormed into a police station in Ulu Tiram at around 3am, today and attacked three policemen with a machete, killing stwo policemen and injuring the other.
The suspect was finally shot dead at the scene.
