Kirams say Malaysian security forces killed kin in Sabah
By Nikko Dizon
The Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo said on Wednesday that an uncle of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III was killed in Sabah by Malaysian security forces on Sunday.
The Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo said on Wednesday that an uncle of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III was killed in Sabah by Malaysian security forces on Sunday.
The Sultanate of Sulu on Monday confirmed Malaysian authorities had arrested a nephew of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III but denied the detained Filipino was involved in the incursion into Sabah last month.
After more than a month of military operations against forces of the sultan of Sulu, Malaysian authorities have declared the crisis in eastern Sabah “under control,” Malacañang reported on Sunday.
The Philippine National Police said Wednesday that it will verify claims of an assassination plot against Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, but added that security details can be provided if found needed, a PNP official said.
Where is Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram? Malaysia’s top security officials announced on Friday that the leader of the so-called Royal Army of Sulu had slipped out of Sabah and was back in the southern Philippines.
Malaysia’s premier has called a deadly incursion by Filipino royal followers a “wake-up call” that will lead to tighter security on the neighbors’ notoriously porous sea border, a report said Wednesday.
While recent reports of human rights violations in Sabah have made headlines, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday every information will have to be validated before authorities can act on it.
Malaysian activists held rallies in front of the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and Friday but the diplomatic mission’s operations remained normal because the demonstrations were peaceful, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Another Sulu fighter was shot dead by Malaysian security forces on Saturday, bringing to 53 the number of Filipinos killed in the skirmishes to end a monthlong incursion into Sabah by armed followers of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III.
“They dragged all the men outside the houses, kicked and hit them,” 32-year-old Amira Taradji said on Friday as she recounted her family’s ordeal in Sandakan, which started when Malaysian security forces launched a crackdown on suspected supporters of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III in Sabah.
The daughter of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III maintained Saturday that no conspiracy was involved in the decision of her family and their followers to reclaim Sabah and slammed the Aquino administration for pursuing this angle to discredit the Sultanate of Sulu.
Malaysian police said Saturday they had arrested 79 people in Sabah state on the island of Borneo as skirmishes to end a month-long incursion by armed Filipino Islamists left one more dead.
