KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — The 10 members of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) were arrested early this year on the information that the terror group had plotted to blow up non-Muslim houses of worship in Selangor and Penang, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop said the group was led by a Syrian man named Ayman and comprised eight other foreigners and one Malaysian, who were held in Sungai Cincin, Gombak, on Jan 21.

Five of those detained were students at institutions of higher learning, he added.

“All of them were independent preachers and strong supporters of Ayman. The Malaysian was found to have got to know Ayman when he was studying in Pakistan.

“Ayman, besides being the leader of the group, was also an educator for the Al-Qaeda whereby he recruited students,” he said.

Abu Seman clarified thus in reply to a question posed by Datuk Mahfuz Omar (PAS-Pokok Sena) who had interjected during his winding up of the debate on the 10th Malaysia Plan for the ministry in the Dewan Rakyat.

Mahfuz had questioned the security briefing given by the police, on the existence of the terror group, to university vice-chancellors and representatives of the Higher Education Ministry, claiming there was lack of sound evidence to show the group had infiltrated institutions of higher learning.

He had also claimed that during the briefing, photographs of PAS president and Marang MP Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, former Perlis Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, former Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin and Perlis Mufti Dr Juanda Jaya were shown apparently to link the Wahhabi ideology to JI.

Abu Seman said Ayman had been in the country for the purpose of recruiting potential students to become members of the militant group.

“They will then be sent to third countries to be trained to take part in a holy war,” he said.

He said the 20 JI members had to be detained because they could undermine national security and order.

On June 14, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan revealed that 10 foreigners had been arrested on suspicion of having been involved in the JI extremist group since early this year.

He had also said that all the suspects, in their 30’s, had been deported to their countries for prosecution.

Abu Seman, when replying to a question by Khalid Abd Samad (PAS-Shah Alam) for the ministry to reveal action taken by the police to check infiltration of certain teachings in public and private institutions of higher learning, said the ministry and the police had drawn up integrated measures with the relevant agencies to handle security issues at these institutions.

The agencies were the Higher Education Ministry, the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim), the Immigration Department, the National Security Council and the Research Division in the Prime Minister’s Department, he said. — Bernama