The incident occurred at 1am on Friday on Pom Pom Island, a popular scuba diving location in the eastern state of Sabah on Borneo island, and underlined continued security threats in the region despite a Malaysian security clampdown following the February incursion.
“A 57-year-old Taiwanese man was shot dead, while his 56-year-old wife has been taken away. She has been taken somewhere else,” said Mohammad Mentek, head of the Eastern Sabah Security Command, a joint police and armed forces operation set up in the wake of the incursion.
A police report on the incident identified the shooting victim as Li-Min Hsu, and his wife as An-Wei Chang.
Mohammad said it was not yet known who the gunmen were, where they were from, or where the woman was taken.
Malaysia and Taiwan do not have formal diplomatic ties.
More than 200 heavily-armed fighters landed by boat along the same stretch of Sabah coast in February in a bizarre bid to support their ageing leader, Jamalulu Kiram III, a self-proclaimed Philippine sultan who had staked a claim to the area.
Kiram, who passed away last month at the age of 75, had claimed to be the heir to the Sulu sultanate, which ruled over Sabah and islands that are now part of the Philippines until the 18th century.
After a nearly month-long stand-off, Malaysian armed forces moved in to clear out the dug-in guerrillas. Dozens died in the drama.
In 2000, armed Philippine gunmen took 21 hostages at Sipadan, another popular scuba diving site nearby, including 10 tourists from Europe and the Middle East. They were later ransomed. - AFP
---------- Another account related news in Star online
Semporna kidnap: Gunmen ransack water villas, shoot Taiwanese and flee with wife
SEMPORNA: Gunmen who shot dead a Taiwanese tourist and kidnapped his wife in a raid on the resort of Pulau Pom Pom off Semporna in the east coast of Sabah arrived in a pump boat about 1am Friday.
Initial reports indicate that gunmen landed on the water villas of Pom Pom Island Resort and Spa and ransacked three of six villas including the one occupied by the victim Lim Min Hsu, 57, and his wife An Wei Chang, 58.
At the time of the raid, there were 48 tourists and staff on the island, but it could not be ascertained if all of them have been accounted for.
It is believed that the gunmen ransacked three of the six water villas in the resort.
Details of who the gunmen were and if they were linked to any Filipino groups from the neighbouring southern Philippines.
The resort is about 1km away from the General Operation Force (GOF) and a tight security has been maintained from the waters stretching from Semporna to Lahad Datu in the Celebes and Sulu seas since the Sulu armed group attack on Lahad Datu in February.
According to initial accounts of the shooting in Pulau Pom Pom, a 45-minute boat ride from Semporna, a supervisor at the resort heard gunshots at about 1am on Friday and immediately informed the GOF post.
Immediately, about a dozen GOF personnel rushed to the resort where they found the body of Lim with two gunshot wounds along the corridor.
His wife however was missing and she is believed to have been kidnapped by the gunmen who were last heard heading towards Pulau Mataking near the Philippines waters.
In late August, nine fishermen from Semporna reported being abducted by Filipino gunmen who wanted directions to the Pulau Mabul diving haven.
They were later abandoned in the sea when the gunmen spotted a GOF post near the resort and fled.
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