Police chief confirms arrest of seven at Labian

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Feb 21, 2013

(Borneo Insider) – Three Al-Jazeera journalists, three SAPP youths and boatman detained while attempting to head to Tanduo, later 6 released with a warning

Three Al-Jazeera journalists were among seven people detained by police off waters at Tanjung Labian, near here Wednesday morning in an apparent bid to attempt a landing at Kampung Tanduo, the hideout of hundreds of followers of the Sulu Sultanate.

The others caught early this morning were three Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) youths as well as the boatmen.

The news was first broken by SAPP Tungku Central Liaison Committee (CLC) Chairman Suaib Mutalib, who in a statement disclosed the arrests.

Later in the afternoon Sabah police chief, Datuk Hamza Taib confirmed the arrests saying the seven were spotted in a boat by a General Operations Force (GOF) team at about 8.00am.

Six were later released by police after their particulars were taken down and given a stern warning not to repeat their ‘ill-planned’ adventure.

The seventh person, presumably the boatman was detained further as his travel documents were not in order.

Hamza said the three journalists and the youths had earlier tried to enter Tanduo by a land route but had failed.

Hamza reminded all journalists, local and foreign, as well as all other parties, not to even try and enter the said area for security reasons.

“Please let us do our jobs. Our focus is to ensure the safety of the people and we do not wish to see any unforeseen incidences happening,” he said.