KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang today questioned the police’s rationale in forming a special unit for sedition investigations rather than one to actively stem the spread of Islamic State (IS) sympathisers in the country.

Lim told Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar that the resources would be spent preventing IS from expanding their operations into Malaysia, rather than to police social media for allegedly seditious content.

“An IGP worth his salt must fight real criminals and not turn patriotic and civic-minded Malaysians, whether PR leaders or NGO activists, into imagined enemies of the state,” he said.

Lim listed a number of recent IS-linked developments here he considered cause for concern, including the 14-year-old girl who tried to join the jihadist group in Syria, and the alleged plots by militants to capture Chinese tycoons and rob banks.

“The IGP’s obsession should be with the growing threat of Islamic State in Malaysia,” Lim said.

Yesterday, PKR lawmaker Rafizi Ramli alleged that the police had recently set up a special unit, D5, to investigate classified crimes including sedition.

Four days ago, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from Muar was arrested at Kuala Lumpur International Airport whilst trying to travel to Syria to join IS.

On February 13, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced that IS militants were planning to kidnap Chinese tycoons and hold them for ransom and to rob banks to fund their militant activities.

IS is a jihadist militant group that uses brutal tactics such as murder and beheadings in Syria and Iraq, and which states its goal as the establishment of an Islamic caliphate purportedly based on Shariah law.

The group is categorised as a terrorist organisation by Malaysia and many other countries.