Did airstrikes ‘cover’ terrorists escape?

What Sabahans want to know is how 130 armed men who were heavily surrounded managed to escape.

KOTA KINABALU: The Kampung Tanduo stand-off weeks ago and the current crisis gripping Sabah is fodder for coffeeshop banters.

A litany of questions have risen over the whos, whys, whereofs and how the shock intrusion happened, the handling of the crisis, the “missed targets” and the precarious political position Sabah is in now.

The answers are still slow in coming, so the rumours, interpretations and speculations of black magic continue to circulate.

What many here want to know is how did 130 armed men who were surrounded by security forces escape, considering the entire village was deserted except for the owners whose house the intruders used?

Also baffling was the contradictory statements from the army following the attack.

Sabah State Reform Party (STAR) chairman, Jeffrey Kitingan, who is as perplexed as the man on the street about this Houdini act by the terrorists, also asked why there had been no directive for a “lightning strike or decisive action” from the Malaysian army if the village was empty.

“If there were no ordinary people within the four km square in Tanduo, then why did the police not act immediately and why did they suddenly say days later [after attack] that the armed men were trying to masquerade as civilians?

“Didn’t they say there were no more civilians within the surrounded area?” Jeffrey asked, adding that it was puzzling that the military would order a bombing within the four km area if there were still civilians trapped in the area.

Jeffrey also questioned how the aircraft could have “missed” their targets and wondered if there had been a blunder with the military intelligence.

Judging from the reports of “missed targets” following the few rounds of bombings, it was obvious that army had no clue of the target spots.

The theory among locals here is that the heavily armed Sulu men had used the airstrikes as a cover to slip out of the heavily guarded security zone unscathed.

“This [the escape] is baffling and I share the same concern of the people at large about the whole going-on, whether it is about army’s competency or government misleading our citizens,” Jeffrey said.

He also said that it is vital to bolster public confidence in the country ‘s ability to secure its borders against similar intrusions.

He said it is best that communication briefs be handled by professionals as in other developed countries so as to bolster confidence and security.

“We cannot take our people to be stupid and easily hoodwinked into believing everything the state has to say,” he said, adding that blacking out of information on the Tanduo seige was another grave mistake by the government.

Since the attack, a special security corridor has been in place spanning the coastlines from Kudat in the north to Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Semporna and Tawau in the east-coast of Sabah.