KUALA LUMPUR: The government will include an additional member in the task force investigating the disappearance of pastor Raymond Koh and Perlis activist Amri Che Mat.

Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the government would also name a replacement soon for police legal unit chief Datuk Mokhtar Mohd Noor, who withdrew from the task force on July 2.

"He made his own decision to withdraw from the task force and informed me as well as the other members of the team.

"We will  name his replacement soon as well as introduce a new member to the task force.

"The new member will most probably be a non-Malay whom I think is suitable for the task force," Muhyiddin said to reporters during a Police and Federal Territories Minister Hari Raya do at the Police Training Centre here on Sunday (July 7).

He added that the task force was not suspended and would resume its meetings in a day or two.

Human rights groups as well as the families of Koh and Amri had been calling for the removal of Mokhtar, former High Court judge Datuk Abd Rahim Uda, the police’s Integrity and Standard Compliance Department director Datuk Zamri Yahya, alleging a conflict of interest.

They claimed that Mokhtar should be investigated for his involvement in the forced disappearances as he was responsible for the entirety of the police case presented at the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia’s (Suhakam) inquiry into the matter.

Koh went missing in 2017 after he was abducted by a group of men in Petaling Jaya.

Amri, who was investigated for allegedly spreading Syiah teachings, went missing in 2016 after he left his home in Kangar.