Handout file photo of Malaysian soldiers in security operations against the armed Filipino militants in Lahad Datu earlier this month. — Reuters picKUALA LUMPUR, March 26 — Sulu gunmen may have buried their weapons to blend in with Sabah society and escape the massive manhunt launched by Malaysia’s security forces to flush out the militants, a Philippine newspaper has suggested.
Sabah residents had called a local radio station yesterday and raised questions on the whereabouts of the cache of arms a ragtag band of Filipino gunmen led by Agbimuddin Kiram, the self-styled heir to a 17th-century throne claiming ownership of Sabah, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
“Could it be possible that members of the so-called Sulu ‘royal army’ threw away whatever weapons they earlier possessed so they could escape the manhunt on their group by some 5,000 Malaysian security forces?” the newspaper asked.
The Inquirer noted that callers had bombarded the radio station with questions following the capture of an unarmed Sulu “terrorist” in security mop-up operations in the Tanjung Batu area yesterday evening, as reported by state newswire Bernama.
“One listener said he could not understand why a ‘terrorist’ would wander without anything to defend himself from the very same forces that have been hunting him and his group,” the paper reported.
The unnamed Sulu man was reported to have put up his hands and asked security forces he had run into in the 5pm incident not to shoot him.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the man was now in police custody.
The police have detained a total of 111 people under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 while the number of terrorists killed remains at 67 while 42 bodies have been brought out of the operation site, according to Bernama.
A group of over 200 gunmen, claiming to be the “royal army” of the Sulu sultanate, landed without trouble in Lahad Datu on February 9 to lay claim to Sabah, using the loosely guarded 40-minute sea passage between the Philippine Muslim south and the coastal district in northern Sabah.
Eight Malaysian policemen and two soldiers have been killed in the armed conflict, and thousands of villagers have been forced out of their homes in remote areas of the eastern-most Malaysian state.
Putrajaya has also declared the area a special security zone and has committed defence forces to guard the area.
Read more: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com
