KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 — Monitoring extremist or militant groups that exploit religion to justify suicide attacks is essential for the country’s security.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the Special Branch’s success in detecting and launching large-scale operations against Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) under the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA) since December 2001 thwarted the group’s violent plans in Malaysia.

He noted that JI’s suicide attacks in Indonesia and planned attacks in Malaysia posed a clear threat to national security, according to a report published today in Harian Metro.

“Additionally, they aimed to overthrow the Malaysian government, which they deemed ‘infidel,’ through jihad ‘qital’ or armed struggle — an approach fundamentally at odds with the country’s democratic parliamentary system that allows Malaysians to form a government through elections.

“Thus, monitoring extremist or militant groups exploiting religion to justify suicide operations is absolutely necessary,” he said in a Facebook statement.

Ayob said any ideology contradicting the teachings of Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah must be completely suppressed.

“The Special Branch operation in December 2001 also successfully identified the regional organisational structure of JI, which seeks to establish an Islamic state, or ‘Daulah Islamiah,’ covering Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Philippines, and Australia.

“To achieve its goals, JI justified violent actions, including suicide attacks, to overthrow governments in South-east Asia, including Malaysia, which they considered secular and un-Islamic.

“The commitment of JI members to carry out suicide attacks is evident from their series of attacks in Indonesia, including Bali (October 2002), JW Marriott Hotel Jakarta (2003), Australian Embassy Jakarta (2004), Bali II (2005), church attacks in Surabaya in 2018, and several subsequent suicide attacks,” he said.

He added that, besides attacks in Indonesia, Malaysian JI members also planned suicide attacks on the Immigration Centre in Woodlands, Singapore, and other key targets in the Klang Valley.

Five Malaysian JI members were also selected by Al-Qaeda to carry out suicide attacks in the United States after the September 2001 9/11 incident.

“From 2000 to 2025, there were nine suicide bombings in Indonesia involving terrorist groups like JI and Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), carried out by 32 suicide bombers.

“These attacks claimed 296 lives and injured more than 976 victims.

“Militant groups, especially Al-Qaeda and affiliates like JI, often describe their suicide attacks as ‘istishhadiyyah,’ or martyrdom operations on the path of Allah,” he said.

He added that suicide operations are not exclusive to religiously motivated fighters, but have also been used by Marxist, secular, and nationalist groups, anarchist rebels, and sometimes by states in warfare — such as Japanese pilots in kamikaze attacks on US forces at Pearl Harbour in April 1945 and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka.

“All planned suicide attacks, whether in the US or Malaysia, were successfully foiled after all senior JI operatives, including members of the suicide cell, were arrested by the Special Branch under the ISA starting 9 December 2001,” he said.