JULY 15 — France is under siege again. Yesterday was a public holiday in France. The French people are celebrating Bastille Day throughout France but in Nice, a truck drove off into crowd and killed more than 84 people. Many people are wounded as well. The French authorities believed it’s a terrorist attack.

Even though the French Police has killed the perpetrator, it’s unknown until now the involvement of other people in this attack. President Francois Hollande declared that the state of emergency has been extended for another three months.

The US president labelled this attack as ‘a horrific terrorist attack’. This attack can be executed by IS or Al-Qaeda. It’s also probably done by a person who is influenced by these groups or any other persons or groups.

Until now there no one has claim responsibility for this atrocity in Nice.

If this attack was directed by IS or Al-Qaeda, then they have taken their approaches into another level.

Like in September 11, Al-Qaeda has used passengers’ flights as their weapons to attack the US and in France now either IS and Al-Qaeda used a truck to kill innocent people in an unpredicted way. This is the first time a terrorist group has used a truck to launch a terrorist attack.

As I believe always, IS is very much different from Al-Qaeda in handling unconventional methods and modes to execute their attack. This because IS is always evolving unlike other known terrorist groups. The choice of their targets is always impulsive.

In Belgium and Turkey, their target was an airport whereas in Dhaka and Puchong their targets were a café and a bar. The number of terrorists involved in those attacks is few but their impact is unconceivable.

In Baghdad they used bombs to inflict maximum damage by killing more than 200 people during the holy month of Ramadan.

Four suicide bombings took place in Saudi Arabia in the same month but no one has taken any responsibility until now.

This illustrates that conventional targets are no longer their choice of attack.

By using less people and most common materials or tools in their attacks with selection of uncommon places as their targets, IS has become the most perilous terrorist group.

For security and intelligence agencies this is the very perplexing situation to handle. The pattern used by IS always evolved and this makes the detection and prevention impossible to handle by these agencies.

In a nutshell, IS will eliminate anyone who is against with their version of interpretation of their philosophy whether the victims are their own brothers or enemies. To uphold and to establish their form of Caliphate they will to do anything in whatever ways that they can find to achieve their goals.

Therefore the attacks in Istanbul, Dhaka, Baghdad, Jakarta and Puchong have illustrated their determination to achieve their heinous intentions.

The ongoing offensive against their Caliphate in Iraq and Syria by the

coalition led by the US has angered and infuriated IS.

The subsequent statement made by leaders of IS urging their supporters and sympathisers to attack the enemies have escalated attacks inspired by IS across the world from Europe and America to Asia.

This is unparalleled and left the intelligence and security agencies unable to prevent or detect any planned attack by IS until it’s occurred.

This has shown that the agencies need to think out of box to tackle this serious problem.

For Malaysia, IS has imposed a serious threat to national security. The first terrorist attack in Puchong has indicated the high potential of future attacks. The threats imposed by two Malaysian IS terrorists to harm our country caused the level of security to be heightened.

The recent threat to harm the top cop on counter-terrorism, IGP and other prominent political leaders in Malaysia shows the boldness and willingness of IS to extinguish the peace and harmony of this nation.

Therefore proper protection not only must be adhering to the targeted security, intelligence and political people but must also the authorities need to increase the protection of their family as well by multiplying the surveillance operations.  

Further, the publication of IS’s Malay language newspaper, Al-Fatihin to cater for its supporters in South East Asia especially for Malaysia and Indonesia designates that their focus is now on this region.

Lately, terrorists from Malaysia getting conspicuous recognition within the propaganda apparatus of IS making this country the primary target of attack and also for recruitment.

Therefore it is appropriate for the US to set up an anti IS data centre in Malaysia to monitor not only the posting of IS on the social media but also to decipher the online messages of IS. This is because IS uses social media and dark web to spread and recruit the potential terrorist effectively.

Apart from this effort, Malaysian authorities need to engage with the public to re-educate and inform how deviant is IS justification of religion especially on the interpretation of Jihad. The collaboration of religious authorities together with security forces and NGOs will bring this vital information not only to rural areas but also in urban areas focusing on troubled youth who lack depth of knowledge of religion.

This is because Malaysia is not only a place for recruitment but has gradually become a major target for IS’s offensive attacks.

Recently in Penang, four people were killed by their own family member and he was shot dead by police yesterday with the information given by the public. Therefore I strongly believe that to tackle IS threats in Malaysia the intelligence and security agencies need to work together with public.

Malaysians owe a duty of care to this nation and they are all stakeholders. Therefore we need to assume the responsibility for the nation’s security and protect the sovereign from IS terrorists whose intention is to destroy this nation.

By sharing available information we will make the operational work much easier for security agencies. Informers on the ground can be helpful because the agencies cannot protect every single area of this nation.

In conclusion, IS’s threat is a national security problem and cooperation among stakeholders is vital to protect the nation with all means available.

* R. Paneir Selvam is a Kuala Lumpur resident.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.