Fear grips Malaysia after 4 gangland-style killings in 8 days in Kuala Lumpur

Police struggle to calm public anxieties after a string of killings perpetrated by masked assailants

A string of suspected gangland shootings that killed four men in just eight days has shaken Kuala Lumpur, stoking public fears and casting doubt on police assurances that the city remains safe.

The shootings took place in the Klang Valley – Malaysia’s most affluent region encompassing Kuala Lumpur and industrialised areas of neighbouring Selangor – after masked gunmen struck in full view of witnesses and CCTV cameras.

The latest shooting on Friday saw a 46-year-old man gunned down in broad daylight as he sat in the driver’s seat of a four-wheel-drive car in Selangor’s port city of Klang, which has a reputation for organised crime.

Just three days earlier, two men in their 40s were killed in the Cheras district on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur after being ambushed shortly after midnight in the car park of a shopping centre. Both men were shot at close range by masked attackers believed to have been lying in wait.

Cheras, an area known for its concentration of Chinese Malaysians and a growing number of immigrants from China who have set up small businesses, has long been notorious for gang-related activity.

Police said preliminary investigations suggested the killings in Cheras and an earlier fatal shooting in Brickfields – a neighbourhood colloquially known as “Little India”, where ethnic Indian gangs have long operated – could be linked to gang violence.

Outgoing national police chief Razarudin Husain sought to allay safety fears by stating the authorities were in control and that “the public need not worry”, according to state news agency Bernama.

But many residents remain unconvinced.

“Three shootings just a few days apart. You would think this is Colombia,” said financial analyst Teddy Chin, referring to the drug-fuelled violence once synonymous with the South American nation.

Five men were arrested – and later released on bail – over the Brickfields shooting, in which a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle entered a restaurant and opened fire on a group of diners. The attack occurred just 400 metres (1,300 feet) from one of the city’s main police stations.

No arrests have been made so far in the Cheras or Klang cases.

Malaysians have taken to social media to express concern about the apparent ease with which firearms can be obtained in the country, despite Malaysia enforcing the death penalty for gun trafficking.

“It’s getting too easy to obtain firearms illegally in our country … the weak enforcement poses a danger to everyone including the law enforcement officers!” Mohd Hafiz Chai said in one post.

Echoing the sentiment, another social media user, Eric Khoo, commented: “With all the recent shootings … what [police] must really investigate is how [do] guns get into the country so easily and what must be done to stop it.”

Malaysia’s police have also raised questions about suspected links between some of its officers and criminal gangs.

In a 2023 speech, the head of the police’s criminal investigation department, Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain, publicly warned officers against forming relationships with crime syndicates.

He pointed to cases of low-ranking personnel owning luxury vehicles, saying: “I know what’s going on”, and decried the lack of oversight into the wealth and lifestyles of police officers.