Malaysian Police arrested four suspected senior members of the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a series of anti-terrorism operations in Klang Valley, media reports said today.

The men, believed to be senior ranking members of the defunct terrorist organisation, were detained by Special Branch’s Counter-Terrorism Division (SB-CTD) operatives following raids in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor on Thursday.

The men were believed to be trying to revive LTTE and make Malaysia as a base for its operations.

Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the suspects include a man wanted for his alleged involvement in the attempted assassination of the then Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1999.

“Police believed that one of three other suspects, who holds a United Nations’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) identity card, is a LTTE bomb expert.

“Another suspect was identified as an accomplice to another suspect, whom SB-CTD arrested on May 14 for involvement in a plan to attack foreign consulates in Chennai and Bangalore, India.

“The man was also involved in forging travel documents and student passes, and in human trafficking activities,” Khalid said in a statement received earlier today.

Khalid added that police also confiscated a cache of counterfeit passports of multiple nations, as well as counterfeited rubber stamps of the Immigration Department and foreign embassies during the operations.

“We are finding it problematic that among 14 LTTE members arrested this year, seven were using UNHCR cards.

“We will get to the bottom of this,” he said.

The fourth suspect was alleged to be responsible in gathering intelligence for LTTE’s attacks.

- Agencies