Lahad Datu: Dua tercedera dalam serangan malam tadi...

 

Dua anggota Pasukan Gerakan Am (PGA) cedera dalam serangan berselang-seli yang berlarutan selama lapan jam di Kampung Tanjung Batu, dekat sini malam tadi.

Pesuruhjaya Polis Sabah Datuk Hamza Taib berkata serangan bermula pukul 8 malam sehingga 4 pagi ini menyebabkan dua anggota PGA, masing-masing berusia 25 tahun. dari batalion Miri cedera di bahagian betis dan paha.

“Mereka yang cedera ketika sedang berkawal di kawasan kepungan itu diberikan rawatan di lapangan oleh pasukan perubatan angkatan tentera sebelum dihantar ke hospital di Sandakan,” katanya dalam sidang media di markas operasi Op Daulat Felda Sahabat 16, hari ini.

Beliau berkata serangan itu menunjukkan kumpulan militan tidak berhasrat menyerah diri atau melakukan gencatan senjata seperti yang dilaporkan media Filipina.

Laporan media Filipina sebelum ini memetik kenyataan Jamalul Kiram III, yang didakwa dalang pencerobohan itu, meminta kumpulan yang menceroboh Lahad Datu supaya meletak senjata selepas berlaku kematian di pihaknya ekoran gerakan ofensif dilancarkan pasukan keselamatan Malaysia.

Hamza berkata jumlah tangkapan mereka yang disyaki terbabit dengan kumpulan penceroboh telah meningkat kepada 85 orang berbanding 79 sebelum ini.Katanya jumlah itu tidak termasuk 27 orang yang ditahan ketika berada di atas tiga buah bot di kawasan larangan Op Daulat pukul 10 pagi semalam di pantai Tanjung Batu.

Disebalik tangkapan dan jumlah militan yang terbunuh, beliau memberi jaminan keadaan keselamatan di pantai timur Sabah adalah terkawal.

Op Daulat yang dilancarkan enam hari lalu menyaksikan 53 militan penceroboh telah ditembak mati.Sejak pencerobohan 12 Feb lepas, lapan anggota polis terkorban, dua daripadanya gugur dalam pertempuran di Kampung Tanduo pada 1 Mac dan enam lagi dalam serang hendap di Kampung Simunul, Semporna sehari kemudian. – Bernama

Polis didakwa bertindak ganas dalam memburu penceroboh

Two security personnel wounded in Lahad Datu firefight...

Two members of the General Operations Force (GOF) were injured in a shootout that dragged on for eight hours in Kampung Tanjung Batu near here last night.Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said the two GOF members, both aged 25, were shot on the leg in the shoot-out which began at 8pm yesterday.

“Those who were injured were given treatment at the scene by the armed forces medical team and then sent to a hospital in Sandakan,” he told a media conference at the “Ops Daulat” operation headquarters in Felda Sahabat 16 today.

He said the shootout showed that the militant group had no intention of surrendering or to ceasefire as was reported by the Philippines media.Media report from the Philippines had quoted Jamalul Kiram III as ordering having ordered the intruders in Lahad Datu to lay down their arms following the offensive operation by the Malaysian security forces. 

Hamza said the number of those arrested for alleged involvement with the intruders had increased to 85 from 79 people, previously.The number, he said, did not include 27 people who were detained in three boats in the “Ops Daulat” prohibited area at 10am yesterday in waters off Tanjung Batu.He assured the people that the situation in the east coast of Sabah was under control.

A total of 53 militant were reported killed in the “Ops Daulat”, launched six days ago.Since the intrusion on February 12, two policemen were killed, two in an attack in Kampung Tanduo on March 1, and six others in an ambush in Kampung Sri Jaya, Simunul, Semporna the following day. — Bernama

‘We’re treated like animals’...

They dragged all the men outside the houses, kicked and hit them,” 32-year-old Amira Taradji said on Friday as she recounted her family’s ordeal in Sandakan, which started when Malaysian security forces launched a crackdown on suspected supporters of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III in Sabah. 

Taradji said Malaysian policemen ordered Filipino men to run as fast as they could and shot them.Among those killed on Monday night during the police sweep of a Filipino community in Sandakan was her brother, Jumadil, she said. Taradji, who was originally from Calinan in Davao City, was among some 400 Filipinos who fled Lahad Datu, Semporna, Tawau and Kunak in Sabah for Sulu as the violence sparked by the intrusion of the followers of Jamalul into the eastern Malaysian state spread at the start of the week. 

In other Philippine areas near Sabah, hundreds more have arrived since the police crackdown started and many more Filipinos are expected to return home anytime soon, according to government officials. Speaking to the INQUIRER by phone through the help of a Sulu local official shortly after arriving in Patikul town by a commercial vessel from Sabah late Friday, Taradji said the police sweeps had become dreadful for both Filipinos and Sabahans known as Orang Suluk (people who originated from Sulu). 

Taradji reported the arrest of Filipino men in Tawau and Kunak. Some of the arrested men, who showed immigration papers, were shot dead, she said, recounting reports by other Filipinos who fled Sabah with her. 

“Some of those arrested did not see jail because they were shot and killed,” Taradji said.She said those who had been locked up were also unlucky, as the Malaysian authorities were not feeding them. 

Extreme fear

Taradji had lived in Sandakan since she was 6 years old and she was a holder of MyKad, the identification card issued to Malaysian citizens and permanent residents. She said that despite her and her family’s being holders of MyKad, they hastily abandoned their home when the police sweeps started Monday night. She said that from a distance, she saw how those caught during the raid suffered in the hands of Malaysian policemen. 

“We sailed from Sandakan to nearby islands. From one island to another, until we reached a small island where we took [an outrigger] for the Philippines. We begged hard so they would allow us into one of the [their boats],” she said. 

Carla Manlaw, 47, said the extreme fear of Malaysian policemen, with stories of abuses and killings, prompted her and other Filipinos to leave for Bongao in Tawi-Tawi. Manlaw and 99 others, including children and elderly people, reached Philippine waters in two motorboats after sailing for about two hours from Sandakan. They were intercepted and escorted by a Philippine Navy ship to Bongao late Friday. 

“My employer had no problem with having a Filipino worker. But what bothered me was the police,” she said. 

Manlaw said the other Filipinos in her boat fled because of fear. “What will they do to us?” she said, quoting her fellow refugees. She said that when she heard that a vessel was leaving for Bongao from Sandakan, she immediately grabbed her things and went for it.

Investigate now
 
Mayor Hussin Amin of Jolo, Sulu, said the accounts of Filipinos fleeing police abuse in Sabah were “alarming and disturbing” and the Philippine government should look into it. He said he had spoken with many refugees and their stories were the same:  Malaysian soldiers and policemen do not distinguish between illegal immigrants and MyKad holders.

“Soldiers and policemen stormed their houses and even those with legitimate working papers like passports and IC papers were not spared. These documents were allegedly torn before their eyes. Men were told to run and were shot if they did. Those who refused were beaten black and blue. Filipinos in jail were executed,” Amin said by phone late Friday. - globalnation.inquirer.net

Filipino refugees claim of police brutality in Sulu roundup

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