KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — A former senior member of the outlawed Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM) was among the 17 people detained Sunday for being part of an alleged terror cell, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said today.

The top policeman said the 49-year-old from Kedah was previously detained under the now-defunct Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 in June 2001, and is believed to have gone to Afghanistan for training in June 1989 and in Sulawesi, Indonesia in November 2000.

"The suspect was also involved in a plan to steal weapons from the Guar Chempedak police station in February 2001," Khalid said in a statement.

The 17 suspects were nabbed by the police's counter-terrorism division during a special operation conducted in Kuala Lumpur and Kedah on the terror cell, which is believed to have links with the Islamic State (IS) terror group based in the Middle East.

Those detained include two soldiers, one security guard with access to firearms and an Indonesian militant and former member of the regional Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror group that was responsible for the deadly 2002 Bali bombings.

Khalid today said the 49-year-old senior member of the terror cell had gone to Syria for military training in August 2014 and returned to Malaysia in December the same year.

Another suspect, a religious teacher also from Kedah, had gone to Syria in September last year to join the IS and returned home three months later.

"The aim of this new terrorist group is to establish an Islamic State in Malaysia," Khalid said.

With the latest arrests, Khalid said the number of Malaysians detained by the counter-terrorism division stands at 92 people since the launch of their first operation in February 2013.

All the suspects are detained under provisions of the Penal Code dealing with terrorism offences and are being investigated under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) 2012.

Malaysia has recently ramped up efforts to keep militant activity in check, amid concerns of an increasing number of IS recruits and sympathisers among the country's majority Muslim population.

This includes the new Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) 2015 — which was passed by Parliament late last night — in Putrajaya's bid to clamp down on the potential threat posed by the IS.

Opposition lawmakers and rights groups, however, slammed the government for allegedly bulldozing a new law that would allow the authorities to detain terror suspects for potentially unlimited periods without trial.