KUALA LUMPUR — Questions are mounting over why no police officers have been arrested or detained to assist investigations into the fatal shooting of three men in Durian Tunggal, Melaka, despite the case now being classified as murder.
Kepong Member of Parliament Lim Lip Eng has urged the police to explain the lack of arrests, saying it is standard procedure in murder investigations under Section 302 of the Penal Code for individuals linked to the incident to be detained to facilitate inquiries.
As of now, no police personnel involved in the early-morning operation on November 24 — which resulted in the deaths of the three men — have been arrested, even after the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) ordered the case to be reclassified as murder earlier this week.
Lim said two days have passed since the AGC’s directive, yet there has been no visible action taken against those involved in the operation.
“Malaysians do not want history to repeat itself. In the Altantuya Shaariibuu case, the authorities failed to act firmly and responsibly from the outset, allowing a convicted police officer to flee to Australia, where he remains to this day,” he told Scoop.
“The same script risks being repeated in the Melaka case. So what are the police waiting for? Is someone being protected?”
Lim also stressed that Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Khalid Ismail cannot continue to remain silent on the matter.
“The public wants answers, not excuses. Whoever gave the order and whoever fired the shots must be identified and brought before the courts,” he said.
In the incident, the three men — described by police as suspected serial criminals — were shot dead after one of them allegedly attacked officers with a machete during the operation.
Initially, Melaka police classified the incident as attempted murder. However, lawyers representing the families of the deceased argued that audio recordings and forensic evidence indicated the men were killed in an “execution-style” manner.
On Tuesday, the AGC directed that the case be reclassified as murder.
Melaka police chief Datuk Dzulkhairi Mukhtar has since said his department is open to the AGC’s decision, adding that Melaka police had, from the beginning, handed over full conduct of the investigation to Bukit Aman. – December 18, 2025