South East Asian Games: 29 more Bangladeshis held in Malaysia security drive

The Malaysia police have detained 290 more foreigners, including 29 Bangladeshis, in the second large-scale sweep for terror suspects early yesterday, as they stepped up security ahead of the South East Asian (SEA) Games.

Of the arrestees, 98 are students from public and private higher education institutions like Lim Kok Wing University, Multimedia University, UCSI University, FTMS Global College, University Kebangsaan Malaysia and University Malaysia Pahang.

Headed by the Special Branch's Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), the joint-operation started at 9:00pm Wednesday and ended almost nine hours later arresting the foreigners who are from 32 countries, said CTU Deputy Commissioner Ayob Khan.

According to the New Strait Times, up to 57 foreigners were detained for failure to produce travel documents or overstaying during operations conducted by the Federal police's Counter-Terrorism Division in Cyberjaya township. 

Ayob Khan said the drive was launched as part of preparations for the 2017 SEA Games, which starts on August 19, and two-thirds of the detained foreigners were from Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

He said the operation was similar to the one carried out on Sunday at the Jalan Masjid India shopping hub where the authorities detained 409 foreigners, including 61 Bangladeshis.

Meanwhile, Malaysian media reported that Bangladeshis and Indonesians topped an updated list of detained undocumented workers as the Malaysian authorities announced that they had swept up over 5,000 foreigner workers in a crackdown on illegal immigration since July.

On July 1, the immigration authorities launched a large-scale operation to flush out illegal immigrants in Malaysia, rounding up some 1,035 foreign nationals, including 515 Bangladeshis.