Police are maintaining strict surveillance on extremist and militant groups that exploit religion to justify suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism, says Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay.
He said continuous monitoring of such groups is crucial to national security, particularly those that manipulate religious narratives to legitimise violent activities.
Ayob noted that the Special Branch’s success in detecting and launching large-scale operations against Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) under the Internal Security Act (ISA) since December 2001 had prevented several planned attacks in Malaysia.
According to him, JI’s suicide bombings in Indonesia and its plans to carry out similar attacks in Malaysia posed a serious threat to national security. He said the group aimed to overthrow the Malaysian government, which it branded as “kufur” (infidel), through “jihad qital” (armed struggle), an ideology that clearly contradicts Malaysia’s values.
“Malaysia practises parliamentary democracy, where the people form a government through elections. Therefore, monitoring groups that exploit religion to justify suicide operations is vital,” he said in a Facebook post.
Ayob stressed that any ideology or belief system that contradicts the teachings of Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah must be completely eradicated.
He added that Special Branch operations in December 2001 uncovered JI’s regional organisational structure, which sought to establish a so-called Daulah Islamiah (Islamic State) encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Philippines and Australia.
To achieve this objective, JI sanctioned violence, including suicide attacks, to overthrow Southeast Asian governments it deemed secular and un-Islamic.
Ayob said JI’s commitment to suicide attacks was evident in several major bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2003 JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, the 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy, the 2005 Bali bombings and the 2018 Surabaya church attacks.
He added that Malaysian JI members were also involved in plans to launch suicide attacks on the Woodlands Immigration Centre in Singapore and several key targets in the Klang Valley.
Ayob further revealed that five Malaysian JI members had been selected by Al-Qaeda to carry out suicide attacks in the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“From 2000 to 2025, Indonesia recorded nine suicide bombings involving groups such as JI and Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD). These attacks involved 32 bombers, resulting in 296 deaths and more than 976 injuries,” he said.
He explained that militant groups, particularly Al-Qaeda and its affiliates like JI, often describe suicide attacks as istishhadiyyah, or sacrificing oneself for the sake of God.
However, Ayob noted that suicide operations were not exclusive to religious-based groups, as similar tactics had been used by Marxist, secular, nationalist and anarchist movements, as well as by states during wartime.
He cited the Japanese kamikaze pilots during World War II and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka as examples.
“All plans to carry out suicide attacks, whether in the United States or Malaysia, were thwarted following the arrest of senior JI operatives and suicide cell members by the Special Branch under the ISA from December 9, 2001 onwards,” he said.
