Kidnappers who abducted two women from a Semporna resort last week have asked for 500 million pesos (RM36.4 million) in a ransom note, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.
The Star Online news portal quotes Zahid as saying that the ransom demand was for Chinese tourist Gao Hua Yan alone, even though Filipina resort worker Marcy Darawan was also taken away by the gunmen on April 2.
"We have sent our team to discuss with the so-called reported middle person," Zahid was quoted telling reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
The hefty ransom demand is a new development, for earlier this week Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) director-general Mohammad Mentek said the kidnappers contacted the victims’ families but stated no ransom.
Esscom had also said last week that it has identified the locationwhere the victims were kept, in Southern Philippines.
In the incident that took place about 10.30pm last Wednesday, a group of seven armed men - believed to be linked to the Abu Sayyaf militants - charged into the Singamata Adventures Reef & Resort and abducted Gao, 29, and Dayawan, 40.
The kidnapping was a blow to the Malaysian government, which has poured millions of ringgit into beefing up security along the notorious Sabah east coast after the bloody Sulu incursion in Lahad Datu early last year.
In November last year, a Taiwanese tourist was shot dead and his wife kidnapped by armed men in Pom Pom Island, also near Semporna. She was later rescued by Philippines security forces in the southern Philippine island of Sulu.
The Star Online news portal quotes Zahid as saying that the ransom demand was for Chinese tourist Gao Hua Yan alone, even though Filipina resort worker Marcy Darawan was also taken away by the gunmen on April 2.
"We have sent our team to discuss with the so-called reported middle person," Zahid was quoted telling reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
The hefty ransom demand is a new development, for earlier this week Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) director-general Mohammad Mentek said the kidnappers contacted the victims’ families but stated no ransom.
Esscom had also said last week that it has identified the locationwhere the victims were kept, in Southern Philippines.
In the incident that took place about 10.30pm last Wednesday, a group of seven armed men - believed to be linked to the Abu Sayyaf militants - charged into the Singamata Adventures Reef & Resort and abducted Gao, 29, and Dayawan, 40.
The kidnapping was a blow to the Malaysian government, which has poured millions of ringgit into beefing up security along the notorious Sabah east coast after the bloody Sulu incursion in Lahad Datu early last year.
In November last year, a Taiwanese tourist was shot dead and his wife kidnapped by armed men in Pom Pom Island, also near Semporna. She was later rescued by Philippines security forces in the southern Philippine island of Sulu.
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