On June 16, when Lieutenant General Datuk Mohammad Razali Alias, the Director General of Malaysia’s Defence Intelligence Organisation landed in Dhaka along with four other officials, he carried with him a dossier containing the details of at least 36 Bangladeshi nationals suspected to have deep links with the Islamic State.
A Batik Air flight (No. OD-162) carrying Lt Gen Razali Alias and his team of MDIO officials landed at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport half-an-hour after midnight on June 16. Guests of Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, they soon checked in at Dhaka’s Radisson Blu Hotel.
At 11:55 am that day, when the team of MDIO — Pertubuhan Perisikan Pertahanan Malaysia – arrived at the Bangladesh Army headquarters, they brought along the dossier. Lt Gen Razali Alias made a presentation related to the 36 Bangladeshi IS operatives who had been clandestinely building a base in Malaysia over a few years.
These Bangladeshi nationals were suspected to be involved in a “militant extremist” conspiracy to destabilise the country. The MDIO’s counter-terrorism operation began on April 24 in Selangor and Johor states and was carried out in three stages.
By the time the MDIO operation concluded, it had yielded conclusive evidence that linked the Bangladeshi nationals with terror-related activities. While five of these men were charged under provisions of Malaysia’s Penal Code, 15 were ordered to be expelled from the country, and the remaining persons continue to remain under investigation.
MDIO investigations and interrogation of the Bangladeshi nationals revealed that they not only followed the Islamic State’s ideology and goals but were “actively involved” in running a “recruitment cell” in Malaysia. Their aim was to disseminate an extremist ideology, secure financial sources to execute their militant objectives and destablise governments in their home country.
A June 27 press release issued by the Malaysian authorities, which Northeast News has accessed, says that Kuala Lumpur would “not encourage or tolerate” any extremist ideology or foreign groups involved in propagating militancy on Malaysian soil.
The release says the Malaysian civil state or kerajaan madani has been and will continue to deal with all extremist activity strongly, even as the Kementerian Dalam Negeri or the Malaysian Home Ministry issued orders to intensify counter-intelligence and counter-terror measures.
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The Kementerian Dalam Negeri pledged to undertake close working relations with similar agencies of other countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia and that Kuala Lumpur would deal harshly with any person or group that seeks to propagate extremism and militancy in the country.
