Malaysian Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said the six, including two Malaysians and the others from Singapore, Bangladesh and the Philippines, were arrested in five separate raids between December 2018 and January this year.
Of these, Mohamed Kazali Salleh, a 48-year-old Singaporean, is believed to have links with Akel Zainal, a member of the self-claimed Islamic State (IS), police said.
Local police also detained a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in a separate raid in Sabah, where he worked as a labourer. The 21-year-old suspect was said to have ties with ASG leader Furuji Indama.
A 28-year-old man from an unidentified South Asian country was arrested during a raid in Selangor. Interpol had issued a warrant, known as a red notice, for his suspected involvement in criminal and militant activities.
Since IS conducted a series of attacks in neighboring Indonesia in January 2016, Malaysia has remained on a high alert.
The country’s police have arrested hundreds of people over the past few years for suspected links to militant groups.
A grenade attack on a bar in Puchong, Kuala Lumpur in June 2016 wounded eight people. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack – its first strike in the Southeast Asian country.
