THE single-storey house at Jalan Halia shows no signs of life although three cars and a motorcycle are parked in the compound.

Two of the vehicles bear peninsular registration plates. A shout from the gate also went unanswered.

The house in “Kampung Cina” is where the divorced mother of the Sarawak-born militant, arrested in Pakistan on December 23, lives.

“Kampung Cina” is a misnomer since the place is not a village but a residential estate in an area to which locals refer as Lutong Baru or new Lutong.

Al-Muhd Alfie Kqhyriel, 20, was arrested at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan while trying to board a Thai Airways flight to Kuala Lumpur via Bangkok.

Pakistani security personnel found four stripped-down pistols and some 70 rounds of ammunition in his possession. The items were concealed in his luggage and the sole of his sandals.

Alfie is allegedly a member of the Islamic State (IS) and was attempting to smuggle the guns and ammunition into Malaysia.

Malaysian and Pakistani authorities are now trying to figure out how Alfie got his hands on the weapons, and who were the suppliers. He is still being detained in a Karachi prison.

Alfie the ‘lone wolf’

Malaysian intelligence sources have described Alfie as a “lone wolf”, a person who prefers to work, act, or live alone. And this is after background checks revealed he had never been in contact with any known Malaysian fighting in Syria.

“He was a quiet person and a loner, but was always on the internet. This is how the authorities believed he became self-radicalised,” said the source.

The target of Alfie’s planned attack is also unknown.

Over the past few years, IS has been releasing videos urging its followers who could not join their fight in Syria to launch attacks against the non-believers in their homeland.

It resulted in a series of bloody massacre in France, Britain, Indonesia and Philippines by “lone wolves” who have pledged their allegiance to IS caliphate Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi.

The latest video released by IS was on December 30. The eight-minute clip featured 25-year-old Muhammad Aqif Heusen Rahizat, who left Malaysia in 2013, urging the followers to launch attacks in their own countries.

The video narrated in English and Arabic also featured an interview with a suicide bomber.

To date, 34 Malaysians have been reportedly killed while fighting for IS in Iraq and Syria.

Another 53 – 24 men, 12 women and 17 children – are believed to still be in Syria, but may have fled from cities where battles took place, according to Malaysian police.

Officials said the Malaysians might have sought refuge in camps along Syria’s borders with Jordan and Turkey.

Alfie attended SMK Lutong

Near his mum’s home, a neighbour two doors’ away who was feeding a dog said she knew next to nothing about Alfie’s family, except that they were a “Malay family”.

Alfie’s mother left Miri days earlier for Kuala Lumpur to “avoid gossip and questions” about the son, according to a police source.

The young militant spent his early years in Lutong, 10km from Miri where Sarawak Shell Bhd (SSB) and Petronas Carigali have their head offices. Petronas’ crude oil terminal is also located in the area.

Although Lutong is a small town and most people know each other by virtue of being either Shell or Petronas employees, many were surprised when told “the Malaysian militant arrested in Pakistan” grew up and went to school there.

A former schoolmate in the co-ed school remembered him as a “normal boy who likes to run around playing catch”.

The schoolmate, who only wanted to be identified as Becky, said he was “very good in English but generally not very smart or good in his studies” when they were in form one in 2010. She was in another class.

“Since he had 3As in his UPSR (Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah), he was placed in the Bistari class in Form One where all the smart ones were,” said Becky.

However, the next year, he was demoted to Bistari 2.

“After form two, I never saw him again.”

When she saw news of the arrest posted on Facebook, she thought that the face looked familiar.

“Al-Muhd Alfie does not ring a bell but I remembered I had a schoolmate we all knew as Alfie. So, I browsed through my school yearbooks,” said Becky, who kept all her secondary school yearbooks.

When she found the name on the news report matching that of her former schoolmate, she was dumbfounded and shocked.

Another former classmate later confirmed that the 13-year-old in the class photo was the 20-year-old arrested in Pakistan.

“Like me, my friends were all shocked and speechless. It is shocking because we never expected to find someone we all knew, to be caught up in such a mess.”

In the school photo, Alfie looked slightly built compared with his classmates seated in the front row. He had a shy smile and their teacher was a Cikgu Norazairani.

Some of his classmates, who were tracked via Facebook, did not respond to queries or declined to be interviewed. – January 4, 2018.