Any action taken by the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) and the police while enforcing the Movement Control Order (MCO) is based on existing standard operating procedures (SOP), Chief of Defence Force Gen Tan Sri Affendi Buang said.

He stressed the MAF had never harmed members of the public as viralled on social media recently.

"I regret the actions of some who took advantage and defamed the MAF while the nation is facing the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Slanderous allegations have emerged on social media claiming that members of the public were assaulted or mishandled by the military. This is a lie as my men are carrying out their duties according to existing SOPs," he said.

He said this after checking on the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) operations at Plaza City One, Jalan Munshi Abdullah here today.

Several images and audio recordings have been circulating on social media since yesterday which claimed that the MAF had beaten up and injured a man for disobeying the MCO.

Affendi said that particular incident, however, took place last year in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and not in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Affendi also hoped the close cooperation between the MAF and the police as well as other enforcement agencies will help the MCO's second phase to be implemented more strictly as part of efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

"At Plaza City One, we have ordered a complete lockdown and its residents are not allowed to go out, while the Health Ministry (MOH) will be conducting house-to-house COVID-19 screenings.

"Besides this, barbed wire fencing had also been mounted around the premises to stop movements," he said.

The EMCO at Plaza City One was enforced on March 31 until April 13 on MOH's advice after 17 positive COVID-19 cases were detected in the building as of March 30.

-- BERNAMA