KUALA LUMPUR: The gunman who allegedly attacked a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year’s Day may have visited Malaysia prior to the shooting rampage that claimed 39 lives.
A government source said Malay-
sian authorities were working with their Turkish counterparts to retrace the movements of the Islamic State terrorist, identified as Abdulkadir Masharipov, from Uzbekistan, who was captured on Monday in a police operation in Istanbul.
“The authorities have seen the reports and are gathering details.
“We will gather more information from our Turkish counterparts to see whether he and any of his accomplices had visited Malaysia or whether they have contact with anyone here,” the source told the New Straits Times yesterday.
The source said it would not be a surprise if the terrorists had connections with people in Malaysia.
“There are many Uzbeks here,” the source said, adding that although the authorities had red flag indicators for suspected terrorists, they were helpless if the names and details of the terrorists were not in the system.
“If we have evidence of a person’s terror activities, for example, we will put them in the system. But, in cases like this, even the Turkish authorities didn’t know Masharipov was a terrorist. We can only identify someone as a terrorist if he is detained.”
However, the source said, the authorities had their own intelligence team, with a significant number of officials stationed at hotspots, including airports, to be on the lookout for those who were red-flagged by the Malaysian authorities.
The news came after pictures published on Dailymail.co.uk on Jan 19 allegedly showed Malaysian and Indonesian currencies (RM1 and 2,000 and 10,000 rupiah notes) in the apartment where Masharipov and four accomplices were arrested.
The pictures also showed a shopping bag full of cash and a copy of the Quran, among other possessions, in Masharipov’s apartment.
Masharipov had admitted to carrying out the attack at Reina nightclub in Istanbul.
Dailymail said the authorities had identified him as being from Uzbekistan and that he had been trained by IS in Afghanistan.
Also arrested in the “squalid hideout” on Monday were three women from Somalia, Senegal and Egypt.
Dailymail quoted Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News as saying that IS sent the trio to Masharipov as a prize for his nightclub slaughter.
“Hurriyet, citing security sources, said the Istanbul shooter had received orders directly from Raqqa, IS’s main bastion in Syria. The report, citing Turkish authorities and police investigations, said the original target of the attack was Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square.
“But the plan was modified in response to heightened security there, according to the report, which cited an account of events allegedly given by the suspect,” it said.
“Masharipov reportedly arrived in Turkey in January last year through Iran, after receiving orders to join the war in Syria. He initially settled in the central Turkish city of Konya.”