Is our security situation getting better or is it getting from bad to worse?

A Bomb Was Found Next To Railway Tracks In Sentul, Sabotage Suspected

A water bottle filled with black powder, glass shards and ball bearings, was found by a member of the public at Lorong Kolam Air 9 in Sentul about 4pm yesterday.

Resembling a crudely made IED (improvised explosive device), the device was located near the Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) railway track as it neared peak commute hours on Wednesday, English news daily NST reports.

Police were notified at 4:35 and a bomb squad dispatched to investigate the suspicious object, a mineral water bottle wrapped in a plastic and newspaper which investigators later discovered contained gunpowder, ball bearings and glass shrapnel wrapped in a cylinder-shaped cardboard paper and plastic.

A police source said the top part of the bottle was covered with a cone-shaped polyvinyl chloride pipe and contained gunpowder similar to that used for fireworks, local news portal malaymailonline.com reports.

“It was an explosive. Sentul police immediately contacted Special Branch when they saw the contents in the bottle,” the source informed the local news portal.

Bukit Aman Special Branch director Datuk Seri Fuzi Harun was quoted by media reports as confirming the incident and said the case was being investigated as “sabotage”.

According to media reports, two trains have passed by the area within minutes before the bomb was discovered. The trains were from Sentul and Segambut stations heading to Putra station.

A KTMB spokesman had spoken to reporters at the scene about earlier warnings from the police to step up security.

“Special Branch has not informed us the outcome of its investigations. We are happy to assist in anyway possible.

“None of our auxiliary police personnel were allowed to go on Raya leave and it is thanks to their watchful eyes that they found the explosive,” he added.

At present, the police have not suggested indications of links to international terrorists and revealed that the IED was found where two heavily used KTMB lines run through, the Batu Caves-Tampin Komuter line and the Tanjung Malim-Port Klang line.

- mD