Muslim fanatics killed in attack

Press, 18 October 1980, Page 9

Muslim fanatics killed in attack

i NZPA-Reuter Batu Pahatj Malaysia ; The Malaysian police have ‘shot dead eight knife-weld-ing Muslim extremists who ■attacked a police state at Batu Pahat, a small town ■ about 200 km south of Kuala i Lumpur. The police opened fire ;when a group of about 20 ; ’men, dressed in white and! j armed with long knives,< ;burst into the station, slash-, ting more than 20 people in-j side, Malaysia’s inspector-j general of police, Tan Sri; Haniff Omar, told reporters, i Six of the attackers were shot dead in the melee and!l two more members of the| group were killed in a fol-p low-up operation several; l hours later at a house in i < Parit Curah Darat about! 10km away, Tan Sri Haniff H said. h Most of those injured! were police. Eleven were se-;( riously hurt, according to ! hospital sources. Batu Pahat was tense i after the shootings, but 1 shops remained open. Road- i blocks were set up on all j roads leading to the town, i local police sources said. 1 The Muslim extremists 1 belonging to a Dakwah (Muslim missionary) move- t ment arrived in two cars 1 and entered the police station through the front and I back entrances. r The group ran amok, t

j slashing policemen and civilians. The police had no alternative but to open fire. Tan Sri Haniff said. One of the dead had papers identifying him as a Kampuchean refugee. Tan Sri Haniff said. A police statement said the reason for the attack ; was not known, but said it :could be related to an article lin a Malay newspaper earlier this month. i The article quoted a local ■religious chief as saying that t two' Kampuchean Muslims i who had settled in the district had been spreading .false religious teachings. | Informed police sources [said that the attack followed ■the postponement of a court lease involving two people belonging to the same Muslim group as the two Kamipucheans. ! The attackers were followers of this group, the sources said. The clashes were the first serious incident involving Muslim extremists in multiracial Malaysia since a small gang of Muslims desecrated several Hindu temples near Kuala Lumpur in August, 1978. Muslim Malays number more than half of Malaysia’s 13 million population. The official religion is Islam but freedom of other religions is guaranteed under the Constitution.