KUALA LUMPUR – The government will not allow a repeat of the bloodbath that took the lives of over a dozen Malaysians during the 2013 Lahad Datu incursion, amid concerns that another invasion may happen in Sabah, said Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (Tanah Merah-Bersatu).
Noting a media report of a plan by mayors from the Sulu Archipelago to launch an attack on the Borneo state, Ikmal said the government views any such threats seriously.
However, he said the authenticity of the report’s contents cannot be verified by the ministry yet.
“I believe, on the government’s part, that any information or news (as being raised) will certainly be viewed seriously.
“We don’t want the tragedy of Lahad Datu to happen again,” he told the Dewan Rakyat when winding up his ministry’s Budget 2022 at the committee stage today.
Ikmal was responding to M. Karuppaiya (Padang Serai-PH) who wanted a response on the media report by the South China Morning Post earlier today.
In the article, the news outlet reported that a secret meeting on a planned invasion of Sabah, organised by a senior government official with the involvement of 19 mayors from the Sulu Archipelago, was held in the southern Philippines on December 1.
The report quoted a senior regional security force source as claiming that the meeting was held by a locally elected official of the Sulu province with the aim to recruit 600 men to invade Sabah.
“The possibility of the plan to attack Sabah coming to fruition depends on how much political support and funds it can get from various parties,” the source said.
The source added that February was seen as the best time to invade. That time was likely to have been chosen to “commemorate” an invasion of Sabah eight years ago by fighters from Sulu, the source said.
In February 2013, more than 200 militants of the “Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo” invaded Lahad Datu in Sabah to assert their territorial claim on part of Sabah.
Malaysian security forces responded by launching a major operation to flush out the terrorist group.
The standoff, which lasted over a month, saw 10 local security force personnel and six civilians killed, while over 50 militants were also eliminated. – The Vibes, December 9, 2021
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