KUALA LUMPUR: The threat posed by the man who has vowed to bring the Islamic State’s terror campaign to Malaysia has taken a new and dangerous dimension.
Security agencies, which have been tracking him over the past few weeks, have learnt that Zainuri Kamaruddin, the man leading Malaysian IS members in Syria, has a special and rare set of skills — he is an expert and deadly bomb-maker.
For years, this skill set was not readily available to local terror cells. Zainuri’s knowledge of putting together improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and his determination to pass on his skills to those willing to pursue the IS cause, has now made him public enemy No. 1, and the repercussions, police warned, are chilling.
Counter-terrorism operatives first uncovered his “hidden” skills when “friendly services” with close links to the Khatibah Nusantara group, which Malaysian fighters come under, shared intelligence on conversations Zainuri had with his comrades. These conversations centred on the guilt Zainuri was forced to carry with him when one of the IEDs he was working on detonated prematurely, killing his then-wife, Rahimah Osman.
The information took them back to 1998 when the explosion tore apart Zainuri’s home in Perak. The “official” story then was that she had gone to the kitchen in the middle of the night and was killed when a gas cylinder exploded.
This happened before Zainuri was picked up for his involvement in the 2001 Southern Bank Bhd robbery. He later served 10 years in jail for possession of firearms and explosives. He was Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia’s Selangor chapter’s chief.
Federal police Special Branch Counter-Terrorism Division (SB-CTD) chief Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said intelligence revealed that on the night of the incident, Rahimah was killed when one of the IEDs that Zainuri had stored under the sink went off.
“Zainuri had been making IEDs, which he hid in the kitchen.
“His wife woke up in the middle of the night to prepare milk for their child. Some water had spilled onto the devices, causing them to detonate.
“He was unhurt and before the authorities reached his house, he wiped clean any evidence that would suggest that bombs were involved,” Ayob told the New Straits Times in an exclusive interview.
Zainuri has since married Rahimah’s younger sister, 47, and police were certain that he never told her that he was responsible for Rahimah’s death.
Zainuri left his wife behind to fight alongside IS in Syria in 2014, under the name Abu Talhah.
In a propaganda video released last Monday, Zainuri, 49, called on IS supporters, specifically in Indonesia and Malaysia, to fight their governments, which IS had labelled as toghut (sinners/those having gone against Islamic teachings).
The country’s counter-terrorism operatives had, all this while, been comforted by the fact that there were only a handful of Malaysian terrorists with bomb-making skills, and that those who had the knowledge had been neutralised.
Notorious Malaysian terrorist Noordin Mat Top, who was known as a master bomb-maker, died in September 2009 in an ambush by the Indonesian Detachment 88 Anti-Terror police in Solo, Central Java.
The SB-CTD had last year arrested 12 people in Gunung Nuang, Hulu Langat, Selangor as they were trying to put the bomb-making skills they had gleaned from the Internet to practice.
The only other known Malaysian IS bomb expert is a military commando, who was arrested last year before he could carry out his plan to bomb several local targets. He has since been charged in police custody and is awaiting trial.
SB-CTD is monitoring IS supporters for signs that they were taking on the challenge that Zainuri had thrown at them.
Zainuri studied at Madrasah Misbahul Falah, Baling, Kedah, before furthering his studies at Abu Bakar Islamic University, Karachi, Pakistan, where he eventually joined Kumpulan Mujahidin Afganistan for two years.
“That was where he first trained to become a fighter. Zainuri has vast battlefield experience, joining battles in Konar, Khowst and Jalalabad in Afghanistan,” Ayob said.
SB-CTD had also linked him to the attempted assasination of Nivashini Rajeswaran on May 25, 1998, and the assassination of Lunas assemblyman Dr Joe Fernandez. However, Zainuri was not the trigger man.
In Oct 25, 2000, Zainuri and his accomplice, known as Abu Omar, planted two bombs at Plaza Warisan and had, on the same day, detonated a bomb at a temple near the Pudu Raya bus station.
He and several KMM members were also involved in the 2001 attack on the Guar Chempedak police station in Kedah where they had planned to seize several M-16 rifles, which they had planned to use to topple the government.
In the Southern Bank case, which led to Zainuri’s incarceration, Ayob revealed that it was his accomplices who had given him up.
“We were led to his involvement by his accomplices, who were arrested following the robbery.
“Police raided his house and seized firearms, ammunition and several types of explosives,” Ayob said, adding that Zainuri was not part of the heist as his instincts
had told him that it would not end well.
In the incident, one of his comrades was killed after being shot by a security guard. Two were injured.
In August 2014, he escaped an ambush by the Bashar al-Assad army with injuries to his neck and thigh.
His comrade, Zainan Harith, 52, also a former KMM member, was killed in the firefight.