KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — A man from Balai Ringin, Sarawak was hit in the head with shotgun pellets yesterday, hours after a former PKR state election candidate was gunned down at a traffic light.
According to the Borneo Post, the 36-year-old was shot when he and several friends alighted from a lorry to collect raw pepper in the town of Bau, near Kuching.
Witnesses said two shotgun pellets were lodged in the man’s head.
He survived the attack and is currently in the intensive care unit of the Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching.
The news portal said it was unclear who fired the round nor was it known if it was aimed at the group or simply a stray shot.
It further quoted sources as saying that the victim and his friends were carrying a large sum of cash at the time of the incident.
But they also said it was unlikely to be an attempted robbery.
Sarawak PKR member Bill Kayong, who contested in the May 7 state election, was shot dead near a shopping mall in Senadin, Miri at about 9am yesterday.
Earlier, the Borneo Post quoted the state’s Deputy Home Affairs Minister Masir Kujat as conceding to a rise in firearms-related crime in Sarawak, and that it could be due to porous borders between the state and Kalimantan.
