KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Islamic State fighters are planning to return to the country to spread their terrorist ideologies, but the government and police are closely monitoring the situation, said the country’s Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar yesterday.

“They are not coming home to surrender themselves to the authorities, rather, to influence people with their ideologies,” Mr Wan Junaidi told Parliament.

He also revealed that 39 Malaysians had been identified as being involved with the terror group and all were from Peninsula Malaysia, but declined to provide further details.

“We are sharing information with our international intelligence counterparts. I do not plan to speak further as the police are still investigating the matter. I can, however, say none of the 39 are from Sabah or Sarawak,” he said.

The Malaysian media recently reported that at least five militants had returned to the country and that the police had arrested three of them, including one Mohamad Fauzi, also known as Abu Dayyan.

The whereabouts of the remaining two are unknown.

Between January and June, the police arrested 23 people in various parts of the country for alleged links to the terror group. Last month, they detained another 14 suspected of links to the group.

Those arrested included three alleged leaders of a cell responsible for recruiting, sponsoring and sending Malaysians to fight in Syria. One of them managed a Facebook page to attract followers and was also active in recruiting female students at local universities, said national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar.

Earlier this month, Mr Wan Junaidi said Malaysians who had joined militant groups overseas had disguised themselves as aid workers, among other methods, to gain travel documentation to enter the countries, making it hard to identify their true motive prior to their exit from Malaysia.

Many Malaysians fighting alongside the group’s forces in the Middle East had reportedly been influenced to take up the struggle by social media. The former youth information chief of the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia’s Kedah branch, who was killed in Syria, had not only posted his activities with the group on Facebook, but also call-to-action messages.

However, identifying the group’s members in Malaysia was not easy, as the militant movement uses an indirect approach to get close to potential members and recruit them, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Mr Jamil Khir Baharom, yesterday.

“At this stage, they could not be considered members until they declare themselves as (Islamic State) fighters,” he said.

Mr Jamil Khir added that the Islamic Development Department was working with other ministries, such as the Home Ministry, Defence Ministry and Foreign Ministry, to monitor the group’s influence in the country. Agencies