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| Inspector General of Police Ismail Omar says his men may have been lured in by decoys and fired upon as they entered the water village. |
TAWAU: Police searching for a group of gunmen in Kampung Sri Jaya in the Simunul area in Semporna may have walked into a trap that was set for them.
According to sources, the gunmen appeared ready for the police raid and opened fire as the police were on the narrow single-plank walkways linking the various houses on stilts.
Six policemen, including an officer, and six unidentified gunmen were killed during the firefight that occurred around 7pm yesterday.
Police have encircled the village, one of many that are perched on stilts over the sea, to track down remaining gunmen.
He said that police had moved in based on a tip off that there were armed men in the vicinity.
“Based on this information, a police team from the Semporna district police headquarters entered the place but were ambushed when they arrived,” he told a press conference in Felda Sabahat Residence, Lahad Datu today.
The Semporna shooting comes just after the killing of two policemen on Friday in Lahad Datu, where a shootout with armed intruders loyal to the Sulu Sultanate took place.
Ismail said police were unsure if the two incidents are linked.
He also said the police had arrested three men, one armed with a knife, who were trying to slip through a security cordon around Kampung Tanduo in Lahad Datu late Saturday. They are being interrogated.
The death toll has now climbed to 26 in two days with eight policemen killed in the line of duty both in Lahad Datu and Semporna. Friday also saw 12 gunmen loyal to the 74-year-old Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III killed. This group had ‘invaded’ Lahad Datu on Feb 12 to stake a claim on Sabah.
A source said that police are also “keen to get in touch with Mohd Akjan Ali Muhammad, the businessman who proclaimed himself as the ‘Sultan of Sulu’ in 2011. Akjan is also a former Umno member who has the loyalty of a large number of Filipinos in the state.
Akjan, according to sources, however cannot be located.
There are also unconfirmed reports that the General Operations Force (GOF) centre in Kinarut near here, a complex that was contracted to Akjan, is on heightened alert as is much of the police stations throughout Sabah.
There is a large Filipino refugee settlement in Kinarut, a small town located about 20 kilometres south of Kota Kinabalu.
Kota Kinabalu police chief ACP Javeh Dikun meanwhile said reports of a group of around 500 Filipinos gathering in Sepanggar, the main port about 30 minutes drive from the state capital are false. He advised the public to ignore rumours circulating in the social media.
Residents fleeing Semporna
Meanwhile in SEMPORNA, panicked residents here, especially those living near the seaside settlement of Siminul, a collection of houses on stilts over the sea, are fleeing the area following Saturday night’s gun battle which saw the death of the five policemen and five others injured.
Meanwhile in SEMPORNA, panicked residents here, especially those living near the seaside settlement of Siminul, a collection of houses on stilts over the sea, are fleeing the area following Saturday night’s gun battle which saw the death of the five policemen and five others injured.
Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman also told reporters that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had assured that security in Sabah was being given top priority following Saturday night’s shooting.
“From my side, I will be working closely with the Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to monitor all areas apart from Lahad Datu,” he said.
Musa said Sabah police commissioner Hamza Taib and the army were also gearing up operations statewide.
“I am also calling for cooperation and assistance from local leaders to tone down the sentiments and numerous rumours on what is happening in Sabah,” he said, adding that people should stop speculating and spreading rumours and increasing anxiety.
In Tawau, residents are also running scared.
“The Chinese community here are worried,” said a journalist based there.
In another development, eye-witnesses claimed that another shooting incident happened in Kampung Pelangi, Bukit Garam near Kinabatangan, about an hour’s drive outside Lahad Datu. This report could not be confirmed.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Sultan Sulu said that its forces on Sabah had taken hostage a Malaysian police officer, two soldiers and a government official.
“We advised the people on the ground to take care of them, to feed them, so that in case there shall be international agencies to investigate the matter we can present those four captured government officials of Malaysia as witnesses to the atrocities committed by the government of Malaysia,” the group’s spokesman, Abraham Idjirani, said Sunday.
Please sent in Malaysian rangers which consist of the much feared Iban trackers to assist the police and army as the invaders seems to run circles around our police who only know how to bully the peaceful protesting rakyat. Personally asked them to do the Pershing method, as what the heroic General Pershing did to these terrorist in the Philippines then they will learn their lesson once and for all.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.snopes.com/rumors/pershing.asp
ReplyDeleteMALAYA TOTALLY FAILED TO PROTECT SABAH FROM FOREIGN INVASION AS A TRADE OF FOR SABAH INDEPENDENCE IN MALAYSIA FORMATION 1963
ReplyDeleteIF a foreign armed force comes and illegally occupies and claim your land- this is an invasion.
The Sulu claim on Sabah comes with great timing on the 50th anniversary of Malaysia formation this year. Those rebels nutured secretly by UMNO have now come back to bite it.
The Sulu claim and armed occupation of some villages shows how Malaysia under UMNO rule have failed to defend Sabah and also Sarawak territory and sovereignty from foreign invasion which it had promised to do so as an enticement for the formation of Malaysia.
The “standoff” is timely to remind us how the British/Malayan Malaysia formation proposals were opposed on 3 fronts - the local resistance to Malaysia and the Indonesian and Philippines opposition to Malaysia.
The “Foreign invasion plus communist takeover” was a scare campaign which Britain and Malaysia used as their corner stone argument for the formation of Malaysia. They exploited the Indonesian Ganyang Malaysia confrontation, the anti-Malaysia Brunei Uprising and the Sarawak guerrilla national independence war to frightened the people. At that time the Philippines also laid a claim on Sabah. All this were handy reasons to scare the people with foreign invasion threats.
It is a known fact that Malaya in cahoots with Britain had help to forment rebellion in the Southern Philippines to counter the Philippines government's Sabah claim
Malaya has been in breach of all the solemn promises and agreements to form Malaysia by harbouring training and arming S. Philippines rebel groups for some 50 years!
So in exchange for our independence UMNO has blatantly abused the pre-Malaysia agreements namely the 18/20 Points Agreement and understandings that Sabah and Sarawak entrusted their peace and security to Malaya by giving up their most valuable independence.
It serves to remind all of us who are still deluding ourselves that we have any "independence in Malaysia" that we never had a real referendum to decide on becoming part of Malaysia!
Malaysia was forced on us as many were saying 50 year ago. We were too weak to stand up to Britain and Malaya's bullying with invasion threats and pushing us into Malaysia hastily after the anti-Malaysia Brunei Uprising.
Since Malaysia was so force on us without freedom to decided or whether to accept or reject the British Malayan bilateral Malaysia proposal, Malaysia was not formed by the free will and decision of the people. They were not ready then.
Further a formal Malaysia Constitution was never completed as was agreed on.
For all these reasons Malaysia exists illegally and by fact of Malaya's military occupation of Sabah and Sarawak.
Sabah became independent on 31 August 1963 and Sarawak on 22 July. They should revert back to this situation by re-asserting their independence.