Mother of slain Malaysian terror suspect pleads for her son's body

Feb 3, 2012, 3:34 GMT

Kuala Lumpur - The mother of a suspected Malaysian terrorist leader killed in the Philippines has appealed for the return of the body of her dead son, a news report said Friday.

Aminah Abdul Aziz, 64, asked authorities in Kuala Lumpur and Manila to send back to Malaysia the body of her son, Zulkifli Abdul Hir, so he could be given proper burial.

Zulkifli, also known as Marwan, 46, was an engineer who worked in a telecommunications company in Kuala Lumpur before he became a leader of the Indonesia-based militant group Jemaah Islamiyah in 2000. He left behind a wife and three children.

The United States offered a 5-million-dollar bounty for his arrest or capture for his alleged involvement in terrorist attacks in Asia, including the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia that killed more than 200 people.

'I was shocked to be informed of his death as I have not received any news or heard from him since he left home over 12 years ago,' Aminah told the New Straits Times newspaper. 'If it is true that he has died, please being his body home.'

Philippine authorities said Marwan was among the 15 suspected Muslim militants killed Thursday in a predawn airstrike in the southern island of Jolo, a known base for al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels.

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