Putrajaya, the country's administrative capital, has launched a squad of Islamic volunteers to help curb "social ills" and persuade Muslims to behave.

The 75-member squad will not be able to arrest errant citizens but will assist religious enforcement officials, said Putrajaya's government-run Islamic Department.

"In Putrajaya there are not many cases of social ills but as a preventive move (the squad) is taking the lead to cooperate with the local community to curb such ills from occurring," the department's director Che Mat Che Ali was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency.

Dakwah in recreational parks

He said the volunteers would identify those who needed welfare and moral support and approach people to conduct "dakwah" - Islamic preaching.

"Rather than arrest them, it would be better that we urge them to repent. Dakwah does not mean that we can only focus on mosques but also other places like recreational parks," he added.

Islamic religious enforcement officers are deployed in mainly Muslim Malaysia to discourage behaviour such as alcohol consumption, gambling and sexual relations between unmarried men and women.