operator armed with MP5-N sub-machine guns during the CQC drill.
Operations Dawn Its first counter-terrorism mission, one of the most well-known and which established the unit's reputation as an elite unit, was an operation known as "
Operasi Subuh"/"
Operasi Khas 304" ('Operations Dawn/Special Operation 304'). It was carried out on 3 July 2000 against
Al-Ma'unah militants who had stolen 97
M16 rifles, 2
Steyr AUG rifles, 4
general purpose machine guns (GPMG), 6
light machine guns, 5
M203 grenade launchers, 26 bayonet daggers and thousands of ammunition rounds from 2 control posts of the
Rejimen Askar Wataniah ('Territorial Army Regiment') camp in Kuala Rui, Perak. The militants also took two police officers, one army special forces soldier and one villager as hostages and planned to launch attacks against the government. In the dawn of 5 July 2000, police and military units created a distraction, while members of the PGK, accompanied by the 22nd Commando Regiment (22 Cdo) of
Grup Gerak Khas led by Malaysian Army senior officer
Lieutenant general (R)
Zaini Mohamad Said and PGK 69 Commando leader ASP
Abd Razak Mohd Yusof were sent to Sauk, Perak to negotiate with the Al-Ma'unah leader, Mohamed Amin Mohamed Razali. Amin, along with his comrades, were persuaded to drop their weapons and surrender to the security forces. Although most of the group initially surrendered, negotiations eventually broke down and a gunfight ensued. Two of the four hostages were killed before the group finally surrendered. The security forces suffered two casualties: police Special Branch officer, Detective Corporal R. Sanghadevan and Trooper Matthew anak Medan from 22 Cdo, who were tortured before they were killed and was buried by the other two hostages, Sergeant (R) Mohd Shah Ahmad and civilian Jaafar Puteh, in the jungle before they were both rescued by security forces. Abdul Halim Ali @ Ahmad, a member of the militant group, was shot dead in the gunfight and five others were injured, including two seriously injured. The other twenty-two were taken into police custody. Mohamed Amin, Zahit Muslim, Jemari Jusoh and Jamaludin Darus were later sentenced to death and the other sixteen were sentenced to life imprisonment. Ten more militants were sentenced to ten years in prison by the
High Court of Malaysia for war preparations against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
Publicly known missions escorted the VVIP vehicles out to the exit gate of Parliament Square after the 52nd Independence Day Parade on 31 August 2009. • 1970s: 69 Commandos led by ASP Zabri Abd Hamid together with Indonesian Army
KOSTRAD combated the PARAKU in Kalimantan jungles. • October 1985: The Special Actions Unit (UTK) was involved in the
Pudu Prison siege. • 29 June 1993: UTK stormed a hiding place of
P. Kalimuthu, a gangster also known as Bentong Kali, at Medan Damansara, Selangor. In the shoot-out with the police, Kalimuthu was killed. • 1994: Rizal Aleh and his father, part of one of the Philippine
MNLF organisations, escaped from the Philippines and hid in a village of Sabah where he started piracy activities. 69 Commandos led by DSP Mohd Noor Razak conducted an operation named Ops Bamboo II to infiltrate his organisation. In a struggle, Mohd Noor was shot by Rizal in the leg. Rizal and his father were captured and sentenced by the National Court after pleading guilty for his criminal activities in Sabah. Later, both Rizal and his father were extradited to the Philippines. • 1998: The PGK and the
Grup Gerak Khas were deployed to provide security and were on standby for hostage rescue, close protection and counter-terrorism duties during the
1998 Commonwealth Games held at
National Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur on 11 to 21 September 1998. • 20 September 1998: In the twilight hours, by orders from the then Prime Minister to the
Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, 69 Commando operatives led by Inspector Mazlan arrested the ex-Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Sri
Anwar Ibrahim in his home 18 days after his ejection from the Cabinet, for inciting anti-Mahathir reforms in
Kuala Lumpur. He was initially arrested under the Internal Security Act and was subsequently charged with, and convicted of, corruption and sodomy. Six years later in 2004, when he was serving his jail sentence for sodomy after completing his sentence for corruption, he was released when his sodomy conviction was overturned by the Federal Court. • 18 January 2000: The PGK was involved in an operation to arrest the Gang Steyr, an armed criminal group led by an ex-special forces soldier named Mohd Hizan Jaafar, along with five men after they robbed a bank in Sri Serdang Road,
Selangor. Mohd Hizan and one other were killed in Majidee Malay Village, with two more killed in Kempas Toll Plaza, Johor Bahru, after a shootout with local police. The operation recovered 4 Steyr AUG rifles, one Smith & Wesson .22 handgun, one Remington shotgun, 85 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition, three rounds of .22 ammunition, a few bullet shells and RM 291,000. The police also launched an operation to hunt two other members of the gang. • 2001: Arrested two
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) suspects in the list of the Australian
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Yazid Sufaat and Suhaimi Mokhtar. The two suspects were detained at Kamunting Detention Center under the Internal Security Act 1960 related to involvement with the activities of JI and
al-Qaeda in conducting the
September 11 attacks and
Bali bombings. • 2002: Arrested six Jemaah Islamiyah suspect terrorists, Dr Abdullah Daud, Shamsuddin Sulaiman, Mat Shah Mohd Satray, Abdul Murad Sudin, Zaini Zakaria and Zainun Rashid. equipment. • 27 September 2002: Hunted down Gang M16, the then Most-Wanted-Criminals of Malaysia, for an armed robbery at the Bank of Tokyo in 1985 and sixteen other armed robberies in jewellery shops and pawn shops, amounting to RM 21.28 million in total. It was reported that all the members of this group were Chinese and the mastermind of this group was one Elvis Keh Jiang Long, also known as Ah Po, an ex-
Singaporean National Service personnel in the
Singaporean Army, was an expert in various firearms and was responsible for training the group for the robberies. During the gun-fighting with the UTK in Batu 5, Jalan Seremban-Mantin, near the Galla Recreational Park,
Mantin,
Negeri Sembilan, two of the Gang M16 members, identified as Sunny Chai @ Sum Wing Chang and his right-hand man, known as Hew Yau, were shot dead. Another gang member, Chang Kew Yin, managed to escape. One UTK officer was wounded. Security forces recovered an M16 rifle with two rounds of ammunition, a Colt semi-automatic handgun with sixteen rounds of ammunition, a Smith & Wesson revolver and three ski-masks from the suspects' vehicles. On 28 December at 2 am, Chang was gunned down in a shootout at Jalan Keris, Taman Sri Tebrau,
Johor Bahru and security forces recovered a Chinese-made
Norinco pistol with three rounds of ammunition. Federal CID Director, Datuk Salleh Mat Som (late), said the police are hunting for the Gang M16 members who were still at large, including sending their officers to Singapore and Thailand to track Keh down, and also requested the assistance of the Australian police to locate another gang member, Hew Soon Loong @ Hong Kong Chai, who was believed to have fled to the country. • Participated in hostage rescue operations against
Abu Sayyaf in Sipadan Island (
Pulau Sipadan) and Ligitan Island (
Pulau Ligitan),
Sabah with support from GOF, the
Malaysian Armed Forces and
Philippine Armed Forces. • 2003: Arrested six Jemaah Islamiyah suspects, Mohd Khaider Kadran (JI leader), Wan Amin Wan Hamat, Sulaiman Suramin, Sufian Salih, Ahmad Muaz Al Bakry, and Hasim Talib. • 2006: Deployed as part of the United Nations
INTERFET to support
Operation Astute. It consisted of Malaysian U.N.
10th Parachute Brigade,
Grup Gerak Khas, Australian and New Zealand U.N Armed Forces in
Timor Leste. • 2007: Arrested four alleged Jemaah Islamiyah suspects, Zulkifli Marzuki, Mohd Nasir Ismail, Ahmad Kamil Hanafiah, and Muhd Amir Hanafiah. • 16 July 2008: Arrested the PKR
de facto leader, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim in front of his house at Bukit Segambut in the twilight hours, similar to what happened in 1998, for investigations under Section 377C of the Penal Code for alleged "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" with his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan. However, CID director Commissioner Dato' Mohd Bakri Zinin said that the arrest was not carried out by the UTK, but by the Bukit Aman's Serious Crimes Division (possibly by the
Unit Tindakan Cepat, UTC). to performing a
door breaching during the CQC drill. • 2009: In February 2008, the
Singaporean Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leader,
Mas Selamat Kastari, escaped from Whitley Detention Center in Singapore. A few months later, he was found to be hiding at a village house in Kampung Tawakal, Skudai, 40 km from
Johor Bahru. Following intelligence sharing with the police forces of
Indonesia and
Singapore, in the dawn of 1 April 2009 at 06:00 am, a team from the UTK counter-terrorist unit was deployed to assist police
Special Branch agents to recapture the militant leader. Both the UTK and Special Branch members stormed the perimeters of the house while Mas Selamat was sound asleep. However, according to a witness, Mohd Saat Marjo, 57, a villager who lived opposite the fugitive's home, about thirty masked commandos armed with automatic weapons together with plainclothes Special Branch agents broke through two doors and rushed into the house when Mat Selamat refused to come out and surrender when ordered by the police. Mas Selamat was handcuffed with his face covered in a dark blue checked cloth before he was swiftly bundled into a police vehicle and taken away. Other JI members, Abdul Matin Anol Rahmat and Johar Hassan, were also arrested together, and the police also seized documents and other paraphernalia that allegedly revealed their planned operation, as well as combed the area with bomb detectors to ensure that the house was free of explosives. However, the UTK's involvement in the operation was not highlighted in the media due to the top-secret nature of the operations. The arrest was attributed to the Special Branch. • 2010: Intercepted the Sultan of Kelantan's motorcade (escorts) 30m outside of the Kelantan Royal Palace as they were heading for the Sultan Ismail Petra Airport to depart for Singapore pending further treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. The team then brought the unwilling Sultan to the nearby hospital (HUSM) somewhere 200m from the palace. • 8 July 2011: Deployed in the
2011 Muar kindergarten hostage crisis, in which a preschool located at
Sungai Abong Park, Sakeh Street near
Muar in southern Johor state was taken by a 40-year-old man. The man, Loi Hui Chung, who was suspected to be a drug addict and mentally-deranged, was armed with a hammer and a machete and threatened to kill the hostages if his demand was not met. The siege ended at exactly 1541 GMT after UTK members stormed the building with tear gas and shot the suspect. He was in a critical condition with a head wound and died later at the Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital at 2115 GMT. • 7 February 2013: Arrested a former Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee
Yazid Sufaat and two of his friends, including a woman, in the Klang Valley,
Selangor in separate operations. The unit nabbed Yazid and
Mohd Hilmi Hasim at a canteen in the Jalan Duta court complex whilst the woman,
Halimah Hussin, was picked up from her house in Kajang. They became the first few to be arrested under the new
Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) which replaced the ISA. They were alleged to have been promoting terrorism and had allegedly been linked to terrorist activities in Syria. • 2013: Deployed in Lahad Datu, Sabah during the
Lahad Datu conflict. The 69 Commando members were involved in hunting down a terrorist group, numbering approximately 200 in strength, from the self-styled "Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo", while UTK members were deployed in urban and populated areas to defend them. The commandos were the main assault team during the early stage of the conflict. Two officers were shot dead and three more wounded in an unexpected "white flag" ambush by the Sulu terrorists, while twelve of the terrorists were shot death and three others were fatally wounded. • 2 March 2013: Officers and members of the 69 Commandos were deployed to Lahad Datu as reinforcements to rescue police officers who were trapped in an ambush by fewer than ten Sulu terrorists in Kampung Seri Jaya Siminul,
Semporna. The terrorists, armed with AK-47 and M16 rifles, had ambushed the officers during a surveillance operation. In the ambush, six officers were killed, while six terrorists were killed after the officers launched a counter-attack. • 19 May 2015: A team of roughly 300 operators from the 69 Commandos were deployed to Malaysia–Thailand border to search and curb the human trafficking activities in the region. == In popular culture ==