TWENTY SUSPECTED MILITANTS INCLUDING THIRTEEN FOREIGNERS WERE ARRESTED IN MALAYSIA FOR HAVING LINKS TO TERROR GROUPS.

On Friday, December 22, 2017, Malaysian authorities arrested twenty militants including 13 foreigners accused of having links to terror groups. This arrest has added to the list of hundreds of people detained in recent years in the country over the same charge. According to Mohamad Fuzi Harun (Inspector-General of Police), the suspects were arrested in a counter-terror operation carried out in four states between November 30 and December 15, 2017. The suspects includes a 50-year-old Filipino accused of recruiting his people in Malaysia to join with the Abu Sayyaf (a notorious militant group known for kidnapping and beheading in the southern Philippines). Also, an Indonesian suspected of being a leader of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (a pro-Islamic State alliance of Islamic militants) was also arrested.