A special ceremony was conducted behind closed doors in Bukit Aman earlier today, which saw Abdul Hamid passing on the baton as deputy director of the police intelligence agency to an assistant, Datuk Mohd Haniff Hanudin. — Picture by Yap Tzu Ging

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — In another abrupt change within government agencies, Datuk Abdul Hamid Bador was today transferred out of the Special Branch (SB) and into the Prime Minister’s Department where he will head a new security division reporting directly to Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

A special ceremony was conducted behind closed doors in Bukit Aman earlier today, which saw Abdul Hamid passing on the baton as deputy director of the police intelligence agency to an assistant, Datuk Mohd Haniff Hanudin who was heading a unit called E4 that deals with the political extremist threat.

Abdul Hamid confirmed the transfer when contacted, but said he was in the dark on the reasons for his abrupt work shift.

“No… they just told me to go to JPM, so I go to JPM lah,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted, using the Malay abbreviation for the Prime Minister’s Department.

“No reason given and I just received the letter yesterday… earlier today, there was a ceremony to hand over my duty.”

He added that he would take up his new duties at the Prime Minister’s Department on September 2, as he was currently on leave from work.

Malay Mail Online understands Abdul Hamid was ordered to go on “long leave” before assuming new duties as the head of a new security and transnational crime division under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.

Contacted today, Bukit Aman confirmed Abdul Hamid’s transfer and that the latter is on leave but denied knowledge on his next posting.

Abdul Hamid’s promotion is the latest change to take place within the SB following last month’s shock Cabinet reshuffle, which saw Datuk Seri Mohamad Fuzi Harun replacing Datuk Seri Akhil Bulat as SB director.