Kampung Tanduo 'cleared', focus shifts to two other villages

Malaysian security forces on Day 8 of Ops Daulat has now shifted its focus Kg Tanjung Batu and Kg Sungai Bilis, as the safety situation Lahad Datu town and Semporna continues to improve.

Sabah police chief Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib told reporters today, that daily activities at the latter two locations have begun to resume normally.

“The security situation at the Lahad Datu town and Semporna has recovered. Activities have resumed normally,” Hamza told reporters at a media briefing this morning at Felda Sahabat.

Kampung Tanduo was the original location where a group of followers of the self-proclaimed sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III landed on Feb 9.

Some of those terrorists were believed to have slipped to Kampung Tanjung Batu, some 7km away, where a firefight killed 31 of them.

Meanwhile, another body one of the Sulu terrorists was brought out of the Ops Daulat battle zone today, raising to 23 the total number of bodies of the gunmen recovered so far, said Hamza.

He added that efforts to recover more bodies are still underway, until all known bodies are brought out.

“If we do not remove the bodies at Tanjung Batu, our efforts to revive the villages will be difficult,” he said.

Hamza also confirmed reports that the ‘general’ shot dead on March 7 morning is “Haji Musa”, believed to be one rank below the leader of the group in Sabah, ‘crown prince’ Agbimuddin Kiram.

Haji Musa is a former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander.

“I want to confirm that General Haji Musa was shot dead by security forces during a firefight,” he said.

Meanwhile, he also said police will not be removing a number of highly decomposed corpses that was found in a grave site.

“We will conduct another check at a gravesite in Kampung Tanduo to check on rumours that there could be more than nine bodies of Sulu terrorists there,” he said.

He said information received showed that there could be up to 15 bodies at the site, where the first gunbattle took place on March 1.

“If remove the highly decomposed bodies, it would not bring any meaning for us,” he said.

Hamza reminded the public not to enter into the operations area, called ‘red zones, and instead asked anyone with information to channel it to the authorities.

“This fight not only involves the security forces, but involves all the people of Sabah. Information is needed for us to act fast. Together we can solve this crisis.”

The conflict at the East Coast of Sabah, which has stretched out more than a month, has so far resulted in the death of eight Malaysian security force personnel and injured seven others.

So far 54 Sulu gunmen have been confirmed to be dead.

Police have also arrested 97 people suspected of having links with the terrorists.