KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Police believe they have solved the case of damaged copies of the Quran and Yasin scriptures dumped at two Terengganu mosques following the arrest of a mental patient.

According to media reports, Terengganu police chief Datuk Jamshah Mustafa said that the 27-year-old suspect, who is believed to be mentally ill, was arrested at 5pm in Besut yesterday.

The suspect is still undergoing treatment, with his records of mental illness dating back to two years ago, Jamshah was reported as saying by Utusan Malaysia.

“With the arrest of this individual we consider this case closed and we hope this will end unfounded speculation on social media that this was caused by groups looking to incite hatred,” Jamshah was quoted saying in a press conference today by The Star.

In reports published earlier today by local Malay-language dailies, hundreds of copies of the Quran and the Yasin scriptures — holy texts used by Muslims —were said to be found damaged and thrown about at two neighbouring mosques Tuesday morning.

The two incidents were said to have occurred late Monday night at the Masjid Limbongan and Masjid Nasaruddin Shah.

In the Masjid Limbongan incident, the mosque treasurer Che Rawi Rahim said yesterday that copies of the Qurans were found in the mosque’s toilet bowls, while the Yasin scriptures were found in the rubbish bin and thrown about on the mosque’s grounds.

According to Che Rawi, the mosque had suffered the same fate on February 24 with fewer copies of the Quran found tossed into toilet bowls. But no police report was lodged at the time.

Che Rawi added that when the mosque first opened its doors mid-2013, a man believed to be mentally ill burned copies of the Quran that he had brought himself, Sinar Harian reported.

The Masjid Nasiruddin Shah incident was discovered at around 5.38am and is believed to have involved three suspects — two who kept watch while a third individual threw copies of the holy book in the women’s prayer area.

Yesterday, Besut police chief Kamaruddin Mohd Zakaria confirmed both incidents and said the motive for the attacks were unknown.

He did not discount the possibility that both cases involved the same group of suspects, saying that the police will carry out investigation under Section 295 of the Penal Code.

Section 295 of the Penal Code, which comes under the heading of “injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class”, carries the penalty of a maximum jail term of ten years or a fine or both.