BANGKOK: Authorities in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur have credible information about a planned terrorist attack amid concern about growing support for Islamic State among Muslim extremists across South-East Asia.
The Australian government through its smartraveller.gov.au website issued a specific warning of an attack in the Alor Street hawker area in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
It is unusual for an Australian advisory to be so specific.
The US issued a similar warning, saying terrorist organisations have in the past planned attacks to coincide with significant dates on the calendar.
Malaysian police have been on high alert following the arrest of 10 suspected militants in multiple raids across the country in the past month, including an armed auxiliary police officer who handled security screening at Kuala Lumpur's international airport.
Malaysia's inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said the suspects were believed to be plotting an attack on Malaysian soil and were collecting funds to assist Islamic State members wanting to travel to Syria.
Five of those arrested are military personnel. The eight men and two women are being held by Malaysia's anti-terrorism division in six locations. One of them is a kindergarten teacher.
Earlier this year Malaysia's government unveiled laws allowing terror suspects to be detained up to two years without trial.
Indonesia's counter-terrorism chief Saud Usman Nasution warned last week that Islamic State has been collaborating with people-smugglers to bring militants from Malaysia to secret training camps in the Poso region of central Sulawesi.
"So we need to stay vigilant, more so because there is information that in Malaysia, there are thousands, a lot of terrorist fighters there who are about to be deployed - we don't know where to - under the network," he told the ABC.
Hundreds of Islamic State fighters from south-East Asian nations are known to have formed a unit called Katibah Nusantara or Malay Archipelago Combat Unit.
Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong warned recently that South-East Asia has emerged as a "key recruitment centre" for Islamic State.
Mr Lee referred to terrorist plots in Malaysia and the pledging of support by local radical groups to Islamic State.
"It is not far-fetched that ISIS (Islamic State) could establish a base somewhere in the region, in a geographical area under its physical control like Syria or Iraq . . . . that would pose a serious threat to the whole region," he said.
"The threat is no longer over there; it is over here."
Indonesia's president Joko Widodo has also said that Islamic State is Indonesia's biggest international concern and that the issue comes up in every discussion he has with regional leaders.
Malaysian police have detained eight people, including four believed to be ethnic Uighurs from western China, in connection with last month's bombing that killed 20 at a shrine in Bangkok.
They are believed to have helped bombing suspects to leave Thailand.
The smartraveller.gov.au website also warns Australians to avoid travelling to coastal areas of eastern Sabah on Borneo island where it says there is a continuing high threat of kidnapping by extremists based in the southern Philippines.
A Norwegian manager of a luxury resort, two Canadians and a Filipino were kidnapped earlier this week on the southern Philippine resort island of Samal.
The perpetrators are believed to be from a kidnapping-for-ransom gang.
The Australian government through its smartraveller.gov.au website issued a specific warning of an attack in the Alor Street hawker area in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
It is unusual for an Australian advisory to be so specific.
The US issued a similar warning, saying terrorist organisations have in the past planned attacks to coincide with significant dates on the calendar.
Malaysian police have been on high alert following the arrest of 10 suspected militants in multiple raids across the country in the past month, including an armed auxiliary police officer who handled security screening at Kuala Lumpur's international airport.
Malaysia's inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said the suspects were believed to be plotting an attack on Malaysian soil and were collecting funds to assist Islamic State members wanting to travel to Syria.
Five of those arrested are military personnel. The eight men and two women are being held by Malaysia's anti-terrorism division in six locations. One of them is a kindergarten teacher.
Earlier this year Malaysia's government unveiled laws allowing terror suspects to be detained up to two years without trial.
Indonesia's counter-terrorism chief Saud Usman Nasution warned last week that Islamic State has been collaborating with people-smugglers to bring militants from Malaysia to secret training camps in the Poso region of central Sulawesi.
"So we need to stay vigilant, more so because there is information that in Malaysia, there are thousands, a lot of terrorist fighters there who are about to be deployed - we don't know where to - under the network," he told the ABC.
Hundreds of Islamic State fighters from south-East Asian nations are known to have formed a unit called Katibah Nusantara or Malay Archipelago Combat Unit.
Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong warned recently that South-East Asia has emerged as a "key recruitment centre" for Islamic State.
Mr Lee referred to terrorist plots in Malaysia and the pledging of support by local radical groups to Islamic State.
"It is not far-fetched that ISIS (Islamic State) could establish a base somewhere in the region, in a geographical area under its physical control like Syria or Iraq . . . . that would pose a serious threat to the whole region," he said.
"The threat is no longer over there; it is over here."
Indonesia's president Joko Widodo has also said that Islamic State is Indonesia's biggest international concern and that the issue comes up in every discussion he has with regional leaders.
Malaysian police have detained eight people, including four believed to be ethnic Uighurs from western China, in connection with last month's bombing that killed 20 at a shrine in Bangkok.
They are believed to have helped bombing suspects to leave Thailand.
The smartraveller.gov.au website also warns Australians to avoid travelling to coastal areas of eastern Sabah on Borneo island where it says there is a continuing high threat of kidnapping by extremists based in the southern Philippines.
A Norwegian manager of a luxury resort, two Canadians and a Filipino were kidnapped earlier this week on the southern Philippine resort island of Samal.
The perpetrators are believed to be from a kidnapping-for-ransom gang.
