Fishermen urged to alert ESSCom to suspicious activities

KUNAK: The Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCom) has called on the fishermen community in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (ESSZone) to immediately report any suspicious activities at sea to its 24-hour operations centre at 089-863181.

ESSCom Deputy Commander Brigadier General Datuk Md Rahim Mohamad said the cooperation from the fishermen community was crucial in facilitating the agency to combat criminal activities including cross-border crimes.

“If there are pump boats milling around or they spot individuals wearing masks, please contact us, for example in Kunak, if there is a report lodged then we will arrange for immediate deployment of security teams either from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency or the Marine Police. “Some of ESSCom’s successes in combating crimes are due to fishermen community’s quick action in alerting us, thus enabling us to carry out immediate action,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after the ESSCom meeting and dialogue session with the Kunak fishing community here yesterday.

Meanwhile, Md Rahim praised the attitude of fishing boat operators in Kunak as 85 per cent of them complied with the directive to equip their boats with Automatic Identification System (AIS) and VHF 16 radio channel for their safety.

“It is hoped that fishermen’s associations in other districts will take the similar step as the system will help the security forces to respond rapidly to any incident at sea,” he said.