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Captured Malaysian describes how he became a terrorist in Thailand
 Malaysian student MuhamÂmad Fadly Zainal Abidin who is in prison here got involved in the southern Thailand insurgency because of a religious teacher whom he knew for only six months.Muhammad Fadly said he was convinced to wage jihad after being given evidence of atrocities of the Thai military by the teacher whom he identified as Ustaz Muhammad. "I believed him because he showed me video footages of Tak Bai and other incidents," he said. He was referring to the massacre in the Thai town on the border with Malaysia on Oct 25, 2004, where 78 Muslim protesters died of suffocation and other injuries after being loaded lying down into police trucks. The 23-year-old Universiti Teknologi Malaysia student was arrested on June 28 last year when he and Omar Hanif Shamsul Kamar, a 17-year-old Malaysian high school dropout, allegedly tried to steal a motorcycle at a village near Sungai Golok. Suspicious villagers alerted the police. They recovered full-face masks, kerosene and knives. Since the two could not produce valid travel documents, they were arrested. They later confessed that they were there to "aid their Muslim brothers who were under the cruel rule of the Thai military." Muhammad Fadly said before travelling north, he underwent three weeks of physical training -- sit-ups, push-ups and jogging -- in Puchong, Selangor. In Sungai Golok, just across the border from Kelantan, Ustaz Muhammad ordered him and Omar to buy knives and parang, steal a motorcycle, kill Thai soldiers and take their weapons. "His orders were peculiar. I was shocked as they were not appropriate tasks for me to perform. And they were beyond my capabilities," said Muhammad Fadly, whose father is a civil servant. "He told me it was a sin if I were to refuse to follow his orders," he added, adding that he wanted to escape to Malaysia but the ustaz constantly monitored him. Muhammad Fadly regretted believing Ustaz Muhammad who has since disappeared. "If I ever see him again, I will tell him that he is only good at lying," he said. His court hearing begins in August. Posted by: ryuge 2009-02-22 |
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