‘Many worried situation could spread’

Police assurances that the situation in Lahad Datu is under control has not lulled anyone here into letting down their guard.

LAHAD DATU: There was little on display on the streets of this normally bustling agricultural town this weekend.

It was like a switch had been clicked off and the town had come to a standstill. Most resident have parked their vehicles close to their homes and have remained indoors on the advice of the police. The daily traffic jams that residents had long complained of were absent.

Residents here appear tense and cautious and when asked say they are staying away from the town  until the ongoing armed stand-off is settled one way or the other.

The bloody encounter between Malaysian security forces and a Sulu group said to number well over 100 men and led by Raja Mudah Azzimudie Kiram holed up in Tanduo village more than 150km from here has cast a pall over the whole of the east coast.

Many shops and businesses especially those close to the sea kept their shutters down while planters and plantation workers who usually congregate in the town on weekends stayed away.

Policemen and soldiers armed with carbines are highly visible and truck loads of military personnel can be seen travelling up and down between Felda Sahabat 17 and the town.

“Less then 30% of the shops are open … my business has been bad for the last couple of days,” said a one man selling an assortment goods at a small stall.

Illegal cigarette pedlars, many of who had whispered about a “raid” by the group now surrounded in Kg Tanduo up to a week before the the gunmen occupied the village, and peddled their contraband along the sidewalks of the town and the wet market facing Pulau Sakar have disappeared.

“Many are worried that the Tanduo problem would spread to other towns and we are the closest,” said a local businessman who identified himself only as Allen.

Police are assuring the people that they are in control of the situation.

However such reassurances have not lulled anyone here into letting down their guard, especially after last night’s confirmed report that yet another  policeman was killed, this time in a firefight with armed intruders in Kampung Selamat, Semporna,, about 150km from Kampung Tanduo, here.