AFTER five years of holding the Better Beer Festival without any incident, the organisers have decided to pull the plug on the event.

There will be no more beer festivals in the future, one of the organisers told The Malaysian Insight this evening, just hours after police had announced that the event was the target of a militant attack.

“This is because it is a national security issue, and we will adhere to what the police have said about the militant attack.  

“It is a total cancellation and it doesn’t look like we will have it again,” the organiser said.

He said they would not meet Kuala Lumpur City Hall to discuss any plans to revive the event.

Earlier today, Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the “Better Beer Festival 2017”, slated to be held at the Publika shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on October 6 and 7, will not have the support from the police due to security concerns.

The event was supposed to feature 250 craft beers from 43 breweries worldwide.

He said intelligence indicated that a militant group was planning to stage an attack if the event took place. 

Fuzi added there were also threats from certain groups that wanted to create problems at the festival.

He said that because of that and to avoid any untoward incidents, police took the proactive measure to object to the festival.

On Monday, the festival organiser announced that the event had been cancelled by Kuala Lumpur City Hall, which cited “political sensitivities”.

This came after PAS politicians objected to the event, claiming it would encourage immorality and turn Kuala Lumpur into the vice capital of Asia.

The cancellation had irked non-Muslims, who said City Hall was bowing to political and religious pressure. 

Counterterrorism expert Ahmad El Muhammady said the possibility of an Islamic State (IS) attack could not be ruled out should the festival go on.

He said a grenade attack on a pub in Puchong in June last year was the clearest guide on how IS would execute its plan locally.

IS claimed responsibility for the attack, which injured eight people and is said to be the extremist group’s first operation in Malaysia. – September 21, 2017.