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Flutter over release of JI activists in Malaysia

SINGAPORE: Malaysia on Wednesday announced the release of two activists of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), widely believed to be the Southeast Asian affiliate of the Al-Qaeda. Yazid Sufaat, a now-freed JI member, is suspected to have had some links with one of the conspirators behind the 9/11 attacks.

The latest Malaysian action has caused a flutter at a time of heightened global focus on terrorism in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. Such concerns transcend the fact that there has been no official word from any quarter about links, if any at all, between the JI and the Pakistan-based group blamed for the Mumbai attacks. And, Malaysia has said “there is no proof” in support of the media reports that a “Malaysian address” was cited by the plotters to make a “nationality claim” and gain accommodation in Mumbai to plot their attacks there. Malaysian Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said in Kuala Lumpur the JI activists and four others “no longer pose a [security] threat to the country.”

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