Cops keeping tabs on spread of IS propaganda, says IGP

 

Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani says the situation is under control.

PETALING JAYA: The police have been keeping tabs on the spread of Islamic State (IS) propaganda on social media and the terror group’s efforts to woo sympathisers, the nation’s top cop said.

Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said the authorities were working closely with their counterparts in the region to monitor the situation so that action could be taken against the terror suspects.

“The (security) agencies have been keeping tabs on the matter and are stepping up efforts in monitoring (the spread of the ideology) to ensure (the public’s) safety,” Acryl Sani said in a statement today.

He said the public should not worry following reports on the spread of IS propaganda by its sympathisers, and that the situation was under control.

The statement came in the wake of a news report in The Vibes, in which home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail was reported as assuring the public that there was no cause for worry over the presence of a group linked to IS in the country.

He said the authorities had been aware of the attempts by the group identified as Al Malaka Media Centre to expand its influence in the country.

According to the Nordic Counter Terrorism Network’s (NCTN) Cyber Counter Terrorism Division, the group’s content is available on the dark web and has shared links with its support structure in Malaysia.

It also revealed that the group used radical ideologies as part of its plan to destabilise the current unity government led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

NCTN director Andrin Raj said the group posed a national security threat and could potentially trigger indiscriminate small-scale acts of violence in the country. - FMT