PETALING JAYA, April 21 — The Islamic Jihad group accused Israel’s intelligence agency of assassinating Hamas-linked lecturer Fadi al-Batsh, who was killed in a hail of bullets in Setapak early this morning.
Senior leader of the Palestinian group, Khaled al-Batash, claimed Israel’s Mossad was responsible for the alleged assassination, and demanded Malaysian authorities conduct a “comprehensive and rapid investigation” before the killers can escape.
Mossad has several divisions including the Metsada and Kidon units that that are believed to engage in covert operations that include assassination and sabotage.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement mourns the son of its sons, the righteous, and a knight of its knights, a scholar of young Palestine scholars and the guardian of the Book of Allah, the son of Jabalia the Mujahideen,” the group said in a reported statement.
“The martyr was distinguished by his excellence and scientific creativity and has important contributions in this area and participated in international conferences in the field of energy.
“The martyr was an example in calling God and working for the Palestinian cause,” it added.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas are both Palestinian resistance groups that are listed as terrorist organisations by the US, Israel and EU.
Despite both groups being distinct and separate, some Israeli media attributed both statements to Hamas, which did not expressly blame the killing on Israel.
However, Hamas acknowledged Fadi as a member and released a separate statement on its website.
“The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas mourns the death of the Palestinian scientist Fadi al-Batsh, who was assassinated on his way to perform the dawn prayer in a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday.”
“He contributed in up to 17 per cent of developing the Malaysian energy sector as he invented and developed several technical sets and minerals used in generating electricity.”
Family members also openly accused the Mossad of carrying out the attack on the engineer who was originally from Jabalia in the Gaza Strip before he left for Malaysia in 2011.
Fadi, who was married with three children, received his bachelor of arts from the Islamic University of Gaza and completed his doctorate in Malaysia.
“We accuse the Israeli Mossad of the assassination of our son, the energy researcher,” said a statement issued on behalf of the family. “Fadi was meant to fly on Sunday to Turkey, to chair an international conference on energy.”
The 35-year old was leaving a mosque after morning prayers in town of Gombak when he was shot at least 10 times by two unidentified attackers on a motorcycle who had waited for him for almost 20 minutes.
City police chief Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim earlier said the closed-circuit television footage (CCTV) showed Fadi, who was also the second imam of Surau Medan Idaman, had clearly been targeted by the assassins.
“This was a targeted killed and not a terror attack, because there were other people at the scene but the assassins focused only on [Batash].”
“We’re not ruling out any line of inquiry, including the possibility that elements identified with ISIS are behind the assassinations.”
