Malaysia awaits Indian report on Sikh militants
By IANSFriday, July 30, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia is awaiting details from Indian authorities and Interpol on a Sikh militant group that is suspected to have set up base outside the national capital.
Malaysia is working with Interpol and the Indian authorities to check on the activities of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Thursday.
The threat of the militant group was “real but not necessarily on Malaysian soil”, New Straits Times quoted him as saying.
“We monitor all militant groups in Malaysia. In this context, we are waiting for the necessary details from the Indian authorities and Interpol.
“We might be a transit point and might also be the destination. However, I am not in a position to disclose the details at the moment,” he said.
A report by Bernama, Malaysia’s official news agency, Wednesday quoted Punjab Police in India as saying that four KLF militants were hiding and canvassing for support in Malaysia.
Hossain said the presence of the group showed that terrorism was not exclusive to any race or religion.
A senior police officer Wednesday said that there is no evidence to support a claim by the Punjab Police about a militant base.
“We can confirm there is no such group based here,” Federal Special Task Force (Operations and Counter Terrorism) department director, Commissioner Mohamed Fuzi Harun, said in a press statement.
Malaysia is home to 100,000 Sikhs who are part of a larger 1.7 million strong Indian diaspora.
Information on the KLF base in Malaysia was obtained following the arrest of a suspected militant in Punjab Monday.
Intelligence agencies suspect that Sikh militants based outside Punjab are preparing to create mayhem in New Delhi before the Commonwealth Games in October, the media report from India had said.
