Malaysian police arrest two over IS links

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian police said on Monday that they have arrested two men with links to Islamic State (IS), including a 23-year-old Indonesian who had plotted attacks on the police headquarters and a police station.

Police found the 23-year-old, who was arrested in an operation last week, attempted to raid the armories of police premises and before that he already traveled to the police headquarters and another location and made video footage, police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said.

If the suspect successfully got the weapons, he would use them on other targets in Malaysia and Indonesia, said Mohamad Fuzi, adding the suspect in last November attempted to target monks in retaliation for "the brutality inflicted on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar."

According to the police, the suspect also swore allegiance to a high-ranking IS leader via WhatsApp, a messaging app.

The second suspect, detained in December, was a 25-year-old religious school teacher, who served an 18-month jail term for terrorism.

The teacher, who was released from prison in November 2016, was found to have been plotting attacks on entertainment venues in Malaysia's Klang Valley area, said Mohamad Fuzi, adding that he also planned to murder non-Muslims and believed that non-Muslim assets could be seized.

The police also found evidence showing that the teacher was having contact with IS militants and promoting IS ideology on Facebook with the intention of recruiting militants. Enditem