Arms buried at invasion site

Lahad Datu: A cache of rusted weapons and ammunitions was found buried under a former residential area in Kampung Tanduo here, Monday, raising eyebrows among security forces as to its origins.

According to State Police Commissioner Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun, all the weapons were badly damaged and unusable. Judging by their condition, it is believed that they have been kept underground for more than two years.

"It is believed that they were hidden by the terrorist group before they fled Kg Tanduo during Ops Daulat," said Rashid.

The weapons, two M14 rifles, one Uzi pistol, three Colt .45 pistols, one revolver, a pair of handcuffs and 173 bullets of different calibres, were kept in a sack before being buried under the sand.

The discovery was made by a team of 15-member General Operations Force led by two officers following a tip-off from the public when the team was conducting Ops Taring in the area.

An excavator was used to recover the weapons and ammunitions.

All the recovered items were handed over to Cenderawasih Police Station for further action. The case will be investigated under Arms Act 1960.

From Feb 11 to March 24, 2013, a group of 253 men and women, some armed, who called themselves the "Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo", held a standoff with Malaysian police and military forces in their effort to assert the unresolved territorial claim of the Philippines to eastern Sabah.

Malaysian security forces surrounded Tanduo village where the group had gathered and after several weeks of negotiations and unmet deadlines for the intruders to withdraw, the security forces attacked and routed the Sulu militants.

In the aftermath, 10 security forces members and 70 militants were killed, one Special Branch officer was convicted for intentionally withholding information about the intrusion, and 27 Filipinos and three Malaysians are being prosecuted for various charges mainly for waging war against the King, harbouring of terrorists, being members of a terrorist group, and the recruiting of terrorists.

Among those being prosecuted is the nephew of Jamalul Kiram III, one of the claimants to the throne of the so-called Sultanate of Sulu, called Datu Amirbahar Hushin Kiram, who abandoned his men in Tanduo and was caught by Malaysian security forces hiding 80 km away in the swamps around Semporna.