Malaysia Assures India Of Help In Combating Smuggling Of Fake Rupees To KL - Deputy PM

From Mohd Faizal Hassan NEW DELHI, July 20 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has assured India that it will assist the country combat the smuggling of fake rupees to Kuala Lumpur, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on Tuesday. Ahmad Zahid, who is also the Malaysian Home Minister, said he made the commitment during a closed-door meeting with his counterpart, Rajnath Singh at the latter's office, here, late Monday. "They made a request (asking for help) to tackle and combat this issue immediately. I was told, these fake rupees were printed outside India and smuggled into Malaysia. "Therefore, we need to get the details of the matter and so, I have called our Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) after the meeting for immediate action even though there is no formal written request," he told the Malaysian media, here Tuesday. Ahmad Zahid pointed out that the smuggling activity did not occur through India but via other countries and the fake rupees were made into currency and part of business trade and transactions in Malaysia. Ahmad Zahid said other matters discussed were the need to set up a joint working group between their respective ministries to finalise agreements on a few aspects, such as strengthening the collaboration on the exchange of intelligence and cooperation on combating drugs smuggling and trans-border crime. "In October this year, they will come to Malaysia to finalise this group. Later on, the deal will be sealed during Prime Minister Mohd Najib Razak's trip to India early next year," he said. Ahmad Zahid said they had also agreed that Malaysia and India should not be made a transit destination for illegal workers or terrorist groups going to another country. On cyber security threats, Ahmad Zahid said India believed this could be tackled via the counter messaging centre that was recently launched in Kuala Lumpur. He noted that the same cooperation had been applied between China and Taiwan and this template would be used by India to tackle the cyber security threats. "If we did not curb this cyber security crime, it will spread out widely and it might go beyond our control," he said, adding that currently there is only one such facility in the United States and another based in Dubai. It was reported that Malaysia will set up its first counter messaging centre in a bid to curb the influence of the Daesh militants in the cyberworld, announced by Najib last March. The counter messaging centre will swing into operations on April 1 and every single state in Malaysia will have a unit to counter Daesh narratives on the internet and stop them from radicalising and recruiting Malaysians to join the militants in Syria. Ahmad Zahid arrived here Sunday for a three-day working visit to enhance ties between Malaysia and India. --BERNAMA