KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16 — The Taiwan government has issued an “orange” travel alert for Sabah's east coast, warning its citizens to take precaution or avoid travelling to the area unless necessary.
According to a report on the website of local news channel Focus Taiwan, the country's Foreign Affairs Ministry (MOFA) issued the alert after a Taiwanese man was shot dead and his wife abducted from the Pom-Pom Island resort off Semporna in Sabah yesterday.
Officials from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia have also landed in Sabah to probe the incident, which occurred in the early hours of Friday morning.
“Orange” is the second-highest warning level in Taiwan's four-colour code travel advisory system, with “red” advising tourists to avoid the marked area and “yellow” at third place urges travelers to take precautions, followed by “gray” at fourth place.
Unidentified gunmen stormed the usually serene Pom-Pom Island Resort off Sabah's eastern coast at about 1am yesterday, raiding five water villas, killing Taiwanese tourist Hsu Lim Min, 57, and in the melee, made off with the man's wife, Chang An Wei, 58.
At a press conference earlier today, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said that the police believe that the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terror network was likely involved in the intrusion.
“We believe the terrorists were able to slip in because there has been a big mobilisation of resources of the Philippine armed forces from the country's south to the north to help out in relief work for victims of super typhoon Haiyan... they had taken advantage of the situation to commit terrorist acts,” he was quoted by Bernama as telling a press conference after attending a “Sunathon” (mass circumcision ceremony) here.
According to English daily The Star, the couple had checked into the resort on Tuesday and were scheduled to leave the following day.
The resort, which is accessible by a 45-minute boat ride from Semporna in Sabah and just a 30-minute ride from the Philippines' Tawi-Tawi islands, is located under a kilometer away from a General Operations Force (GOF) base.
The police had yesterday dismissed suspicion that the gunmen could be members of militant groups operating from southern Philippines.
According to The Star, Sabah CPO Datuk Hamza Taib said the men had entered into one of the chalets through a toilet window, later leading to the murder and kidnap of the Taiwanese couple.
“The resort’s guard, who heard the shots, ran to inform the General Operations Force (GOF) base about 800m away,” he was quoted as saying in a report today.
The door to the couple's chalet, the state police chief added, was still locked from the inside when the husband's body was discovered. He had two gunshot wounds on his chest.
The GOF base was among the others set up under the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) following the February intrusion in Lahad Datu by a group of Filipino gunmen.
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 over Sabah, using the loosely guarded 40-minute sea passage between Philippine's Muslim south and the coastal district in northern Sabah.
Their landing has resulted in nearly 80 deaths, including eight policemen and two soldiers, and forced thousands of villagers out of their homes in remote areas of the eastern-most Malaysian state.
Putrajaya later declared the area a special security zone under Esscom and committed defence forces to guard the area.
Commenting on the latest security breach yesterday, Esscom director-general Datuk Mohammad Mentek reportedly admitted that there were some weaknesses to the set-up in the area, including the lack of speed boats.
According to The Star, Mentek said it was not easy to keep all areas around Semporna secure as there are over 40 islands that are in close proximity to islands in the Philippines.
