SUNGAI PETANI: Kedah police have rubbished claims that they are singling out Indians in their bid to enforce the law.
The accusations come hot on the heels of a Molotov cocktail attack on the Kuala Muda police headquarters early Saturday.
Responding to the accusations, Kedah police chief Datuk Asri Yusoff said the handwritten note left by the two attackers, who claimed that police were targeting the Indian community, were off the mark.
He explained that police are focusing their efforts on smashing the notorious Gang 35, and it is just a coincidence that the majority of the gang's members are Indian.
"This has nothing to do with any race. It just so happens that most Gang 35 members are Indians.
"We are not singling out any ethnic group in enforcing the law," he told a press conference at the Kuala Muda police headquarters here late Saturday.
Asri said the crackdown against Gang 35 in Kedah is part of a major crackdown against underworld gangs in Kedah, Penang and Selangor, led by the federal police's Special Task Force On Organised Crime (STAFOC).
He said out of 62 individuals detained under 'Ops Cantas Khas', 17 were from Kedah with one of them a woman.
All of them were detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA).
"Gang 35 is a notorious triad which is active in drug trafficking, criminal intimidation, robbery and other cases in the Sungai Petani area.
"We have identified nine more individuals from the gang and are tracking them down," he said.
On the Molotov cocktail attack, Asri said police have identified the two men involved. Kedah police have formed a task force comprising all departments to hunt them down.
"I am telling the two men to surrender and I pledge that we will not rest until we arrest them.
"We view such criminal acts against the police force as very serious and we will not stop from executing our duty in our war against triads," he said.
Asri urged those with information on the case to contact the state police contingent headquarters.
In the 3.30am incident Saturday, two men hurled a Molotov cocktail near the Kuala Muda district police headquarters entrance, in an apparent retaliation to the police force's ongoing crackdown on triads in Kedah.
A policeman manning the guard house spotted two men outside the police headquarters and tried to approach them. However, the men jumped onto a motorcycle and sped off.
While fleeing, one of the men hurled a Molotov cocktail towards the entrance, causing a fire which left burn marks on the entrance wall.
The duo left behind a banner which bore 04 and swastika logos, warning the police to immediately halt the ongoing crackdown against the underworld gang.