POLICE have submitted investigation papers on the self-styled anti-vice vigilante group Badar Squad to the deputy public prosecutor for further action.

Investigations were carried out under the Societies Act 1966, said Kuala Muda police chief Adzli Abu Shah, adding the volunteer group was considered an illegal entity. 

He said the police would continue to monitor the squad’s movements and activities, which have so far been carried out mostly in Sg Petani, Kedah, over the last two years.

“We are waiting to see if the deputy public prosecutor will charge them. If they continue their activities, police can take action against them,” Adzli told The Malaysian Insight.

The squad, which had gone around nabbing unwed Muslim couples at budget hotels and counselling them at cemeteries, suspended its activities about two weeks ago when its founder and leader, Azhar Mohamad, was arrested.

Azhar, along with nine other group members who had also been arrested, were released on police bail on January 19.

Azhar had been arrested after a police report was lodged against him by a senior official of the Kedah Islamic Affairs Department in Sg Petani earlier this month.

Though considered illegal under the Societies Act, the squad’s activities appeared to have received tacit approval by the religious authorities and police over the last two years.

In The Malaysian Insight’s first report on the squad, Azhar had said the squad always conducted its anti-vice work and raids on budget hotels with the authorities’ knowledge. He had said it always reported its plans to go on raids to the authorities, which had never stopped them.

After The Malaysian Insight’s November report, however, state officials said the group had been operating illegally and was taking the law into its own hands.

Kedah’s religious authorities had said the squad did not have the authority to conduct anti-vice operations, which had to follow certain regulations.

Sg Petani lawmaker Johari Abdul had also said the squad’s method of taking couples to cemeteries to counsel them was “excessive”.

Azhar, meanwhile, had said he had tried to get the squad registered with the Registrar of Societies twice, but was rejected both times.

Last month, he had a war of words with Kedah state expo in charge of religion, Ismail Salleh, accusing the latter of failing to help register the squad as a legitimate entity and for blocking its programmes at a local mosque. – January 25, 2019.