TANDUO, FELDA SAHABAT, LAHAD DATU: Relatives of the Sulu Sultan’s family are said to be among dozens of people who have been hauled up by the police over the last two weeks on suspicion that they are sympathisers of the so called Sulu Royal Army.
Among those hauled up for questioning and interrogation is the son of Rajah Mudah Abjimuddin Kiram, the leader of the Sulu Raiders who held security forces to a three-week stand-off at Tanduo, before fleeing to safer ground.
Others include the information chief of a local political party as well as uniformed personnel – though earlier the IGP had denied that security people had been detained for allegedly providing the “other side” with classified information.
Police remain tight-lipped about the arrests but at least four men have been transferred to police headquarters in Kepayan to be interrogated.
On Tuesday night, villagers near Kembarabudi in Felda Sahabat area said police also detained eight people in a blue van as they were driving out of the Tanjung Labian area which was about 5kms away along the coastline to Tanduo village which was bombed earlier in the day.
The villagers claimed that among those detained could be a son of Abjimuddin, and a woman who could also be related to the Kirams.
Residents leave their village in Tanjung Labian near Tanduo, where Malaysian forces launched an assault on Filipino gunmen, bombing the village followed by a ground assault by troops.
Tanduo villagers, who fled upon the first landing of the Sulu group on Feb 9, have said that Abjimuddin and his top lieutenant known as “Musa’’ a former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander, were related to local village leaders through marriage.
Abjimuddin, a soft-spoken person was also once the former assistant district officer of Kudat in the early 1970s – though he used a different name then – and his family has a long list of relatives living mainly in Lahad Datu, Semporna and Sandakan
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters that at least 13 Sulu raiders were killed in Tuesday’s offensive in Kampung Tanduo, and they believe the tally could be very much higher than that – the unofficial figure being 50.
He told reporters that the mop-up team found the bodies along with weapons when they went into the area Wednesday.
“We believe more have been killed. The mop up operation is still going on,” he said.
“No security personnel were injured in the operation,” the defence minister added.
Another raider was said to have been killed Wednesday morning, when ground troops were fired upon in an ambush as they entered Tanduo to “clean up” the area, flattened by Tuesday’s aerial and artillery bombing.
More than 24 hours after the assault codenamed “Operation Sovereign” was launched, Malaysia’s national police chief Ismail Omar said the main encounter was an exchange of gunfire in the hilly coastal district that’s thick with foliage slightly after dawn on Wednesday.
Hoever, Wednesday afternoon, fresh shooting between Malaysian security forces and the gunmen of the Sultan of Sulu has erupted in at least two places – Tanduo where Malaysian air force pounded the hide-out from the air and ground on Tuesday – and near Labian, where the men from Tanduo are said to have escaped to.
According to unconfirmed reports reaching The Borneo Insider, they saw armoured personnel carriers (APCs) heading towards Labian (where Tg Batu is also located) shortly after lunch and after two hours, explosions were heard.
The latest will be confirmed when the police give their usual Press conference later Wednesday.
Malaysian armed policemen man a security check point in Cenderawasih in Borneo near Tanduo village, the area where an armed confrontation with supporters of the Sultanate of Sulu happened on March 1. A fresh clash broke in Semporna, another town 300 kilometers away, on Sunday.
However IN SEMPORNA, police arrested four men believed to be linked to the armed intruders involved in the ambush in Kampung Sri Jaya, Simunul here last Saturday.
The four men, aged between 20 and 50 years, were arrested in a special operation mounted by a team of policemen from Sabah Police Special Investigation Department.
Last Saturday, six police personnel were killed in an ambush by the armed intruders in Kampung Sri Jaya, Simunul here.
Unconfirmed reports reaching the Borneo Insider say that “some men drove past the Lok Kawi Fifth Brigade camp in Lok Kawi on Tuesday night and fired several shots in the air”.
This caused the army to immediately go into a lock-down mode with soldiers taking on a defensive position at several strategic areas within the camp’s parameters.
Families of soldiers staying outside the camp were ordered to return to the camp.
Similar incidents were also reported to have occurred at the TLDM base in Semporna as well as the police station in Kinabatangan. However police when contacted, have denied anything unusual had happened.
By BInsider News
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