KOTA KINABALU - Five gunmen abducted a Chinese national manager of a cage fish breeding company in Pulau Baik, Lahad Datu early yesterday, just over a month after a female Chinese national was abducted from a resort off Semporna, highlighting the security challenges Sabah faces.
The masked men, dressed in camouflage fatigues and brandishing M-16 high-powered rifles, grabbed Yang Zai Lin, 34, in the incident which occurred at 2.45am.
Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said Yang, from Guangzhou, China had been working with the Chinese-owned fish breeding company, Wonderful Terrace Sdn Bhd, since three years ago.
He said the company had been in operation since 2006.
Based on initial investigations, Hamza said three of the five gunmen wore only shorts and the group had earlier arrived in a 200HP speed boat.
“They escaped with the Chinese national after threatening a female worker in Bajau dialect.
“We were alerted on the incident at 2.53am and deployed three marine boats to chase the abductors,” said Hamza.
He said security forces from the air and marine units tried to corner the getaway boat before a shootout with the abductors – believed to be from southern Philippines – occurred in the high seas about 6.20am near Pulau Mataking.
“The abductors escaped into international waters through the Alice Reef Waters.
“Our security forces tried to chase the abductors right up to the Philippine border waters but they ceased for security reasons as soon as the abductors entered the Saluag village in Pulau Sibutu,” he added.
Hamza said following the incident, the police detained 19 people in Lahad Datu to facilitate investigations.
Eleven of them were of Suluk ethnicity while the rest were Indonesians.
He said only nine of them possessed valid travel documents.
The case is investigated under Section 365 of the Penal Code and Section 4 of the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971, which provides for life imprisonment and six strokes of the rotan upon conviction.
Police believe the gang of abductors could be one of several groups which kidnapped for ransom.
They were also trying to determine whether the group which pulled off the abduction yesterday morning was involved in last month’s Singamata kidnapping.
Last November, suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen kidnapped a Taiwanese couple holidaying in another Sabah resort.
The husband was killed during the abduction while the wife was freed after being held for 36 days on the main Sulu island of Jolo.
A ransom is believed to have been paid.
The eastern part of Sabah — whose pristine dive sites are a top tourist attraction — has seen several kidnappings despite increased security.
Meanwhile, Datuk Yong Teck Lee, former chief minister of Sabah, blasted security forces for their failure to secure the area and warned that it will hurt Malaysia-China relations.
Yang Zai Lin
“It is a huge embarrassment to our security machinery as it happened very deep inside Malaysia’s territorial waters. The damage (in Malaysia-China ties) will be compounded further,” he said. — Agencies
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