Cult planned war on Internet

Members of the radical Muslim cult who looted a Malaysian military armoury planned to use the Internet to declare jihad (holy war) against the government, reports said yesterday.

"They were aware that all this while, many people had talked about dying as martyrs, the struggle to fight the government and jihad, so they thought these groups would help if chaos was triggered," Norian Mai, inspector-general of police, was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.

Immediately after members of the Al-Ma'unah cult staged the arms heist on July 2, he said, their leader Mohamed Amin Razali directed some members to go to Kuala Lumpur and fire at targets to try to provoke chaos.

(China Daily 2000/07/25)