KOTA KINABALU, Sept 12 — Security forces received information that the Kunak police headquarters would possibly be attacked by an armed group on the night of March 2, last year, the High Court here was told today.
VAT69 team leader ASP Andrew Gani Ak Jimmy said he was instructed by Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun, the commander of ‘Ops Daulat’, then known as ‘Ops Sulu’, to eliminate Sulu militants intruding Kampung Tanduo in Lahad Datu in February last year, and head to Kunak to provide assistance to the police there, in case the information was true.
Armed with pistols, M-16 rifles and HK11 rifles, as well as night vision goggles, Andrew and his team left Lahad Datu where they had been on stand-by about 10 that night and arrived at the Kunak police headquarters at 11.45pm.
“My team and I went straight to the Kunak police headquarters’ operations room and was informed that the police headquarters might be attacked that night, following an incident in Simunul, Semporna (earlier that evening),” he said.
On the night he arrived at the Kunak police headquarters, Andrew said a village man wearing a pair of shorts, hurriedly went up to him and said he had seen a group of more than 30 armed men arriving at a location in Kunak. He added, the Kunak police chief suspected the group came from the Philippines, based on the village man’s information.
To a question by deputy public prosecutor Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar, Andrew said he instructed his men to guard the district police headquarters on a roster basis that night until the next morning.
However, he said no untoward incident occurred, and the following morning at 9.15am, he received a call from VAT69 Commander Datuk Azizan Abdul Aziz, instructing him to leave for Semporna that morning to assist in the rescue of security personnel trapped at Kampung Sri Jaya, Simunul, following a skirmish the previous evening.
Earlier, the leader of a police support team, who was involved in the ambush at Kampung Sri Jaya following a raid to arrest a suspect linked to the Lahad Datu intrusion, told the court he was unsure if the old man and four young men he had shot were the targeted suspect, only known as ‘Imam Tua’ and his sons.
To a question by counsel Datuk N. Sivananthan, who is the lead counsel appointed by the Philippine Government to represent 27 of its citizens, team leader ASP Pangiran Mohammad Zamri Pg Omar said he was unaware the then-Sabah commissioner of police, Datuk Hamza Taib had said in a statement that ‘Imam Tua’ was killed in that ambush.
Based on the statement shown to him by Sivananthan, Mohammad agreed the statement had mentioned that ‘Imam Tua’ was killed during the skirmish with security forces at Simunul on March 2, last year and that the real name of the suspect was Jamjam Salih, aged 74.
Thirty accused, comprising 27 Filipinos and three local residents, are being tried in the case, in which some are facing multiple charges of being members of a terrorist group or waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, recruiting members for a terrorist group or wilfully harbouring individuals they knew to be members of a terrorist group.
They allegedly committed the offences between Feb 12 and April 10 last year.
The hearing before Justice Stephen Chung at the Sabah Prisons Department will resume on Sept 22. — Bernama
