M Update, 30/1/2019 – Police are monitoring several areas in Sabah like Tawau, Sandakan and other districts identified as transit locations for Daesh terrorist group or Islamic State (IS) that was making inroad into the southern Philippines. This was following a church blast in Jolo, Philippines, which claimed the lives of 27 people and injured 77 others on Sunday said Inspector General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun.
The police would step up security in Sabah in light of the information on the militant group making southern Philippines as its new operation base. Besides that, the police are currently gathering intelligence on the Muslim extremists from Rakhine, Myanmar, who were believed to have attempted to make the state as another base for the region. They (however) did not recruit members from Rohingya ethnic.
“We are monitoring (the areas to determine) whether there’s any element of terror through Daesh that is making its way into several districts in Sabah like Tawau and Sandakan as its transit locations to penetrate the southern Philippines. “Continuous monitoring (would be carried out) because we don’t want this element to become a problem in Sabah. We know that Daesh terrorists in Syria and Iraq are facing challenges in its operations and are attempting to make the southern Philippines as their new base,” he told reporters after attending the Jasa Pahlawan Negara award presentation ceremony for Perlis police contingent headquarters here today.
“In this matter, we don’t want such threat making its way to Malaysia and have informed the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) to boost security and ensure that terror element does not spread (here),” he said.
He said the police had previously exposed the names of 18 people from the southern Philippines who had links with terrorism like Abu Sayyaf militant members and kidnapping syndicate to ensure that the authorities keep a close watch on them.
Sources : New Straits Times
