ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / July 13, 2014) – Masked gunmen raided a holiday resort in Sabah and shot dead a Malaysian police and abducted another officer before fleeing towards the southern Philippines, reports said Sunday.
It said the intrusion occurred before midnight on Saturday near the Mabul Water Bungalows off Pulau Sipadan where the gunmen engaged policemen guarding the area. At least eight gunmen on a speed boat tried but failed to barge in the dive resorts located in the area.
There was no statement from the Malaysian embassy in Manila about the latest intrusion and it was unknown at this point whether the local Abu Sayyaf, a militant group tied to Jemaah Islamiya, was responsible in the raid.
Malaysian authorities identified the slain policeman as Kpl Abdul Rajah and the abducted officer as Kons Zakiah Aleip. The Abu Sayyaf has been tagged as behind at least 6 kidnappings in Sabah since last year.
The daring raid occurred days after Abu Sayyaf released Yang Zai Lin, a 34-year old Chinese fish farm manager they kidnapped in Sabah on May 6. Yang was free by the Abu Sayyaf in southern Philippines following a series of ransom negotiations.
Yang, manager of the Wonderful Terrace Fish Farm at Pulau Baik in Lahad Datu town, was whisked to a speed boat by his handlers and taken to Sabah. It was unknown if ransom had been paid by Malaysia o Yang’s family in exchange for his freedom. The Chinese Consulate in Malaysia said Yang is a native of Guizhou province.
The Abu Sayyaf was largely blamed for the daring raid on the posh Pulau Sipadan resort in 2000 where they kidnapped 21 people and ransomed them off to Malaysia and Libya for at least $25 million.
In November last year, the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped a Taiwanese tourist Chang An Wei, 58, after killing her husband Hsu Li Min, 57, in a daring cross-border raid in Sabah’s Pom Pom Island. The woman was eventually released a month later near the village of Liban in Talipao town in Sulu after paying ransom.
The Abu Sayyaf resorted to ransom kidnappings to raise money for the purchase weapons and fund terror attacks in the Philippines. It is still holding at least 10 people, mostly foreigners. (Mindanao Examiner)
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