ISA arrests: '4 Syrians, 1 Yemeni, 1 Jordanian'

A human rights group claimed that about 50 people were arrested under the Internal Security Act last Thursday in Kuala Lumpur but most were released soon after.

According to the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI) president Syed Ibrahim ( right ), only 12 were further detained while the rest were set free at 3am on Friday.

He said that the group, including 8 Malaysians, Middle Eastern nationals and one US national, was nabbed by a police team while they were at an informal religious class in a house at Sungai Cincin, Gombak.

 Of the 12 still being detained, GMI was able to identify nine individuals: Azzahari bin Murad (Malaysian), Khalid Salem (Yemen), Abdul Alhi Bolajoko Uthman, Luqman Abdul Salam (Nigerian), Hussam Khalid (Jordan), Aiman Al Dakkak, Mohamed Hozifa, Kutiba Al-Issa and Hassan Barudi (all Syrian).        

GMI said today that two other individuals of Saudi Arabian and Nigerian nationality may have been detained for the same reasons, bringing the total number of detainees to 14.

According to a relative of one of the detainees, Homam Abdulalim Al-Tarsha, the Saudi embassy has confirmed that an individual named Abdullah Ahmad Alsehima was arrested on Jan 17 at the LCCT airport.

He also speculated that a Nigerian man named Ibrahim had been arrested, but his whereabouts are unknown.

Syed Ibrahim said that "GMI believes that the new ISA detention may have been initiated in response to international pressure on terrorist threats in Malaysia,” but stressed that “nothing could be confirmed.”

"The house they were at was stormed without warning by the police using force and weapons," he said.

Syed Ibrahim said the detentions may have been a response to international pressure on Malaysia to crack down on terrorism, particularly after US warnings that militants were planning attacks on foreigners at Borneo island resorts.

"In any case, the ISA is a convenient tool to use to avert pressure by making foreigners, in this case mostly from the Middle East region, into scapegoats," he said.

Syed Ibrahim was accompanied by one of the detainees, Mohd Yunus Zainal Abidin, 29, who was freed by the police last week.

According to the freed detainee, the students were attending weekly religious class held by Aiman al-Dakkak, a Syrian doctorate student at the University Sains Malaysia.

At around 10pm, around ten police officers armed with automatic weapons broke the door and told the students they were under arrest, saying that they were following Home Ministry orders.

They were brought to the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) for interrogation, where they were grilled on the teaching of their teacher, Aiman.

Muhd Yunus ( far right in photo ) said the interrogation focused on whether Aiman was planning any action, and that he was not questioned over the Christmas bombing.

"We never talked about jihad or bombing anyone. Aiman condemned this," he said of the classes which he said had been running since 2003.

Possible links to 'underwear' bomber

The detainees were said to be members of a group linked to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, the Nigerian who was arrested in the United States after he attempted to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear.

Farouk ( left ), allegedly trained in Yemen by Al-Qaeda, was overpowered by airline passengers after he attempted to blow up the plane while on board Northwest Airlines flight 253 which was bound for Detroit from Amsterdam.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein yesterday said that 10 people were held under ISA, which allows for detention without trial, for alleged terrorist links. He refused to divulge more information.

He said that all the new detainees "are involved in international terrorism" but would not reveal whether they had planned or carried out attacks. He also declined to say when and where they were arrested.

He refused today to confirm or deny the report the detainees were linked to Farouk and reiterated that Malaysia would not release further information that could jeopardise the ongoing investigation.

"If you are talking about international linkages, international terrorism, it cannot stop with just the people we apprehended because we don't know who else is out there," he told reporters.

"I think this is a very good wake-up call because the playground for the terrorist is no longer one location. In this borderless world that we live in now, the whole world is their playground."

Al-Qaeda leaer Osama Bin Laden, in an audio message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, praised him as a "hero" and warned US President Barack Obama that the foiled plot was meant as a similar message to the Sept 11, 2001 strikes.