KOTA BARU: Police will arrest Akel Zainal, a former drummer for now defunct 1990s rock band, the Ukays, if he returns to Malaysia.
He has since 2014 joined a militant movement.
According to sources, Akel is still in Syria along with several other Malaysian fighters.
“The Malaysian authority has received information that Akel has joined the militant movement and is willing to die in war-torn Syria.
“However, they are ready to nab him if he returns to this country,” said the sources.
The sources said Malaysian authorities, especially the police, were monitoring Malaysians becoming fighters in Syria and other countries.
It is believed that Akel had travelled to Syria after being influenced by another Malaysian identified as Ustaz Lofti Ariffin who was killed in 2014.
It was reported in an English daily newspaper several years ago that Ustaz Lotfi, who was former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee, had become the third Malaysian to die in the war.
The Kuala Ketil-born, whose real name was Mohd Lotfi, was severely injured on his left arm and head as missiles rained on a militant base in east Hama.
In the same attack, 21-year-old Mohammad Fadhlan Shahidi Mohammad Khir was also killed. Fadhlan was said to be the youngest Malaysian fighting in Syria.
The same newspaper previously reported that Mohd Lotfi, the former Kedah Pas Youth information chief, was on a do-or-die mission in Syria but he claimed on his Facebook posting he was not a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) terror network.