POLICE have come under scrutiny over their failure to arrest individuals behind the recent KK Mart attacks despite taking credit for apprehending alleged international criminals like the Israeli man last week.

At the same time, they are also being questioned over the fatal shooting of five individuals, all suspected criminals, last week in Putra Heights, Selangor. The five were between the ages of 25 to 30.

Activist and former MP Kua Kia Soong said the police force’s apparent “selective efficiency” was concerning.

“While on the one hand, they seem to be super-efficient at apprehending alleged ‘international terrorists’ such as the Israeli caught with sizable arms, at other times their failure to apprehend the fire bombers of several KK Mart shops or to find missing Malaysians is mind-boggling,” he said.

“If the Malaysian police cannot apprehend the hooligans who firebombed the KK Mart outlets, we have to be afraid, we have to be very afraid for the upholding of law and order in this country,” he added.

Kua said that police were also ineffective in locating missing Malaysians, giving the examples of M. Indira Gandhi’s former husband, who had absconded with their child, or the case of the missing activists such as Pastor Raymond Koh, Amri Che Mat and others who have been missing since 2017. 

The Israeli man who Kua referred to is 36-year-old Shalom Avitan, who was arrested at a Kuala Lumpur hotel on March 27 having six guns and 200 bullets.

The Times of Israel reported on Saturday that Avitan was an associate of an Israeli criminal syndicate who had been en route to assassinate a member of a rival crime family.

Malaysian police also confirmed that Avitan told authorities that he was in Malaysia to hunt down another Israeli citizen. However, police remained doubtful and did not rule out the possibility that the suspect could have had other plans.

Along with Avitan, a Malaysian couple has also been arrested for sourcing the weapons for the Israeli while another local was arrested for acting as Avitan’s driver.

Avitan is remanded until April 7 for illegal trafficking of firearms, which carries penalties that could include whipping, life imprisonment or a death sentence.

Public inquiry needed

Meanwhile, former Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy called for a public inquiry on the shooting of five individuals in Putra Heights.

Selangor police Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said the five persons were believed to be involved in over 50 robberies in the Klang Valley.

Police said that the men in a car behaved suspiciously before they were asked to stop. But unfortunately, the men shot at police and all were shot dead when police fired back.

“What the police are saying might be true, those shot dead might have had extensive police criminal records, association with other gang members in robberies and intimidation and others.

“However, the public needs to know who these individuals were, their background, where did they come from and, most importantly, what were their crimes. 

“If their crimes were extensive, then the public has the right to know about these crimes.

“I am not questioning the police, but the police need to be transparent on matters of life and death,” said Ramasamy, who now leads Indian political party Urimai.

He said there had been too many cases of police shootings in the past that merely relied on the police version of what happened.

“Surely, apart from the police account, shouldn’t there be an inquiry by the relevant departments as to what actually happened on the fateful night of March 29?” he added. – April 3, 2024.