Kuala Lumpur’s police chief says the killing of a Palestinian academic in the Malaysian capital is an “international issue” that is being investigated from all angles.
Malaysian authorities said an autopsy was carried out Sunday morning on the body of Hamas member Fadi al-Batsh, a day after the drive-by shooting that Hamas and the victim’s family blamed on Israel, Aljazeera reported.
“We are investigating all angles. I have to investigate very carefully and deeply. This is an international issue,” police chief Mazlan Lazim said.
Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement said Batsh was an important member of the organization, accusing Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency of being behind the killing.
Calling him a “loyal” member, Hamas said Batsh was a “scientist of Palestine’s youth scholars” who made “important contributions” and participated in international forums in the field of energy.
The group initially stopped short of blaming Israel, saying only that he had been “assassinated by the hand of treachery”.
However, its top leader later accused the Mossad of killing him and threatened retaliation.
Ismail Haniyeh told The Associated Press on Saturday that based on previous assassinations “Mossad is not away from this disgraceful, terrible crime”.
On Saturday, he visited the mourning tent Hamas opened outside the house of al-Batsh’s family in Jabaliya in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Speaking to Aljazeera in Gaza, Batsh’s father called on the Malaysian authorities to investigate the “assassination” with urgency.
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, said the suspects were believed to be Europeans with links to a foreign intelligence agency, according to state news agency Bernama.
Batsh was walking from his high-rise apartment to dawn prayers at a local mosque in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Gombak when he was shot by two gunmen riding a motorcycle, officials said.
At the crime scene, police markers indicated 14 bullets had been sprayed at the victim, some of them hitting a wall.
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