POLICE have no indications that Jemaah Islamiah (JI) is gaining strength in Sabah, said Special Branch Counter-Terrorism assistant director Azman Omar.

He told a forum on the threat of extremism during the Covid-19 pandemic that there is no solid intelligence to show that JI had revived its influence in Sabah.

“There is no evidence to show that JI is back in Sabah although its leader Abu Bakar Bashir is out of prison.

“We, however, are monitoring ex-JI members who have been released. JI was active in the early 2000 but not now. No intelligence to show such movement,” said Azman at the forum organised by The International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia.

In February, Sabah police commissioner Hazani Ghazali said Sabah could see attacks similar to the Bali bombings of 2002 and assault on the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta if nothing is done to curb JI activities in the state.

The bombings of nightclubs in Bali killed 202, while the attack in Jakarta left 12 dead.

Members of the extremist Islamist group were later convicted.

Between 2014 and 2020, 83 individuals suspected of involvement with JI have been arrested in Sabah.

Of the total, 38 were locals, 39 from the Philippines and eight were Indonesians.

Azman, however, admitted that JI was a well-organised group compared to the Islamic State.

“JI is more dangerous than IS. They are also more organised. They are capable of carrying large-scale attacks,” he added.

In January, the United States filed formal charges against an Indonesian militant and two Malaysians in the 2002 Bali bombings and 2003 Jakarta attack.

The charges were filed nearly 18 years after the three were captured in Thailand and after each had spent more than 14 years in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The first charged was Indonesian militant Riduan Isamuddin, better known by his nom de guerre Hambali, the leader of the Indonesian jihadist group JI and believed to have been al-Qaeda’s top representative in the region.

The Malaysians – Mohammed Nazir Lep and Mohammed Farik Amin – were top Hambali aides in JI who had undergone training by al-Qaeda, according to Guantanamo case documents. – March 25, 2021.