Hunt for militants in Sabah ongoing
KOTA KINABALU: Police would continue to track down Daesh and militants hiding all over Sabah including the interior areas, said Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Omar Mammah.
He said that last year, 24 individuals believed to be involved in militant activities were arrested in a number of operations and more operations would be conducted soon.
“In tackling security threats to the state, action had been taken against syndicates smuggling explosives into Sabah, including launching a special operation which was conducted by the Sabah police Special Branch and a team from Bukit Aman (federal police headquarters) in January.”
The proactive measures were taken with the aim of curbing cross-border crime and any illegal entry of foreigners following the conflict in neighbouring southern Philippines, he said at the monthly assembly of the Sabah police contingent headquarters in Kepayan here yesterday.
Meanwhile, Omar said the Sabah Police Contingent has been voted the third best among other police contingents in Malaysia during the Chinese New Year Ops Selamat 14 nationwide.
“Ops Selamat 14 this year only saw seven road fatalities recorded in Sabah between January 29 and February 12 compared to 13 road fatalities recorded during the same period of Ops Selamat 12 in 2018.
“This shows a decrease of six dead cases or negative 86 percent fatalities,” he said during the Sabah police contingent (IPK) monthly gathering at the state police headquarters in Kepayan yesterday.
Omar said the achievements made by the Sabah Police Contingent, for being voted the third best among their counterparts, were also mainly due to the number of bit patrol operations carried out during Ops Selamat 14.
“A total of 2,579 patrol operations were conducted at housing areas, especially unoccupied houses during the Chinese New Year holiday, and I am happy to announce that none of those houses that were left unoccupied had any reports of break-ins.
“This was mainly due to the home owners’ initiative by informing the police in advance that they would be away or ‘balik kampung’ for the holiday period, so we can coordinate bit patrols in their areas,” he said
Under Ops Limau, an operation to combat illegal gambling activity during the Lunar celebration, also saw 24 raids being carried out with 97 people detained.
In a joint operation by the Sabah Police Contingent, General Operations Force and police from Bukit Aman on January 27, six people, including a woman, were arrested for involvement in fish bombing activity.