KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian police said on Saturday that they had arrested five people, including a European employed as a teacher, on suspicion of links with militant groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Malaysia is on heightened alert after a leaked report in Thailand this week quoted Russian security services as warning that 10 Syrians linked to Islamic State had entered Thailand in October to attack Russian interests.
Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement that four of those arrested were foreign nationals and one was a Malaysian. The arrests were made between Nov 17 and Dec 1.
Among them was a 44-year-old European who was employed as a temporary teacher in the state of Penang, and had links with al-Qaeda and allegedly participated in militant activities in Afghanistan and Bosnia, the police said.
Three other suspects — a 31-year-old Indonesian man, a Malaysian and a Bangladeshi — were said to be part of a cell linked to IS and are were tasked with recruiting volunteers to take part in militant activities overseas.
The leader of the cell was the Indonesian, who is said to have pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi through Facebook in 2014.
"He, along with the Malaysian national, is suspected of acting as facilitator to organise individuals from Malaysia and some Southeast Asian countries to join the Islamic State in Syria," said Khalid.
Southeast Asia faces the threat of IS-inspired attacks designed to "glamourise terrorism", a Malaysian minister said last month, voicing fears of battle-hardened fighters returning from Syria to launch Paris-style attacks.
In September, Malaysian police said they thwarted a plot to detonate bombs in Kuala Lumpur's vibrant tourist area of Bukit Bintang.