GEORGE TOWN, Dec 15 — Penang police are on the hunt for a fourth suspect in the series of gruesome killings of Myanmar nationals.
State police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said police were still gathering intelligence to track down the second group responsible for the death of a man found with his throat slit in Relau last Monday.
He said the existence of the new group was disclosed following interrogation of the 20 suspects, all Myanmar nationals.
Rahim said the modus operandi of the second group was identical to that from the mainland.
“Their style of executing victims is the same. Kill and dump the body elsewhere,” he said.
Rahim also said police would release a photofit of the fourth suspect, believed to be in his 30s, once his particulars have been confirmed.
This follows the arrests of two more Myanmar nationals in their 40s in Kampung Pisang near Bukit Mertajam on Dec 5.
“Six of the suspects have since been released on police bail. Two have been charged under the Immigration Act for not possessing valid travel documents,” he said, adding 12 were still being held to facilitate investigations.
Malay Mail had in previous reports quoted sources as saying the main suspect, a man from the Arakan district in Myanmar, had admitted to killing three of his countrymen.
Last Thursday, Rahim announced police had identified another three Myanmar suspects from the first group: Mohd Yahyar Khan Rafie, 24, a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees cardholder; while the other two men were only known as Lokman, believed to be in his 20s, and “Gemuk”.
Rahim said police were trying to identify the whereabouts of all four men and have also seized a car, two motorcycles and three machetes from the suspects.
