KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — The Home Ministry today revealed that a total of 74 people across the country were shot dead in crimes committed within the first eight months of the year.

Its minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said cases of fatal shootings were recorded in all states except Perlis between the months of January and August this year, with Selangor topping the list with 15 murders.

Perak had the second highest record with 10 fatal shootings, followed closely by Penang which recorded nine killings.

Sabah and Johor accounted for seven shootings each, while Sarawak, Kelantan and Kuala Lumpur each had five shooting deaths. Only Perlis had a clear record.

“Most of the firearms used for crime are believed to have been smuggled in from neighbouring countries,” he said in his written parliamentary reply to DAP’s Bakri MP Er Teck Hwa.

Ahmad Zahid said smuggling activities across the border remains relatively rampant due to the high traffic at entry points and economic interaction between border communities that create opportunities for smugglers.

He said the situation had been made worse by the porous border crossings that are at the same time used by locals to smuggle in all sorts of items, including firearms.

Familial ties and geographical factors, such as at the Malaysia-Thailand border that is only separated by Sungai Golok, have also encouraged smuggling activities, Ahmad Zahid added.

The minister said to deal with the problem, the government has ordered the police to work closely with Anti-Smuggling Unit, Customs and Immigration departments and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (APMM), among others, to tighten monitoring and enforcement.

The police have also launched two special operations — Ops Laras, which focused on firearms smuggling at border crossings, and Ops Api to deal with criminal cases that involved the use of firearms on home soil.

Putrajaya has also mooted increasing the jurisdiction of the marine police unit (PPM) to cover up to five nautical miles from the coast, a much wider area compared to their current role of patrolling the shoreline, rivers, ports, islands and lakes.

“The widening of PPM’s jurisdiction will create a multi-layer (sic) operation concept, where the first layer of up to five nautical miles would be handled by PPM while the next layers will be handled by the APMM and the Malaysian navy.

“With the strengthening and widening of the PPM’s jurisdiction, we are confident of creating a more organised defence of our waters and this will have a more effective impact in managing any form of intrusion on the safety and peace of the nation’s waters,” he said.