since there are no updates so i post backdated news about claims of malaysian hitman team.
KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 ― Malaysia has sent a military commando team led by a colonel to kill Jamalul Kiram III, a spokesman for the self-declared Sulu “sultan” staking a 17th century claim on Sabah told Philippine media yesterday.
Abraham Idjirani, the sultanate’s spokesman and secretary general, was reported by Philippine news portal Interaksyon, as saying a Malaysian colonel he named as Sunny Ng had arrived in the Philippines with a four-man “hit squad” and enlisted the services of three people from the New People’s Army from Quezon province.
A Filipino lawyer who had formerly acted for Jamalul’s advisor, Pastor “Boy” Saycon, had leaked the purported assassination plot to the sultanate, Idjirani was reported saying.
He added that the unnamed lawyer had been approached by a Malaysian businessman named Kenneth Lee, at the colonel’s request, to seek out details to Jamalul’s address.
“In the light of this development, we would like to ask the government: Have we surrendered our sovereign control (of our country) that we allow a Malaysian hit squad... to perform their terroristic acts in the Philippines?” Idjirani was quoted as saying.
The news portal also reported Jamalul saying he was not afraid of the “hit squad”.
“Why would I fear them? I have not seen them. Maybe if I see them, I will just run,” Jamalul was quoted as saying.The ailing “sultan”, however, called on Philippine authorities to investigate the claimed assassination plot.
His family was reported saying they would not seek police protection.
Jamalul’s younger brother, Agbimuddin Kiram, had last month led some 200 followers into Lahad Datu on Sabah’s east coast to reclaim the north Borneo state they insist belonged to their clan and was only leased to the British in the late 1800s, although it is internationally regarded to be a part of Malaysia since 1963.
Malaysia had attempted to negotiate a peaceful end to the armed intrusion for three weeks from February 9 but resorted to combat after the Sulu militants refused to leave.
A total of 62 Sulu gunmen have been killed in separate clashes to date while Malaysia has lost eight policemen and two soldiers.
A teenage boy of unknown nationality has also died in the conflict.
Malaysia’s security forces nabbed three people suspected of having links with the gunmen in Sandakan two days ago, raising to 107 the number of people held under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.
They will be charged in court soon, Sabah police chief Datuk Hamza Taib was reported by state news agency Bernama as telling a news conference yesterday in Lahad Datu.
Philippine lawmakers are pressuring the Aquino administration to file a formal complaint with Putrajaya as allegations of abuse of Filipinos flood the country in the wake of the Sabah armed conflict.
The Philippines and Malaysia have, however, agreed that it was within Putrajaya’s rights to defend its borders after appeals for negotiations were met with stubborn refusal from the Kiram clan.
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