In the second such incident in just over a month, another Chinese national has been kidnapped from a fish farm very near to Lahad Datu, Sabah.

Police today confirmed that five intruders seized 34-year old Yang Zailin, a manager from Wonderful Terrace Sdn Bhd in Pulau Baik, at about 2.45am today. Two of the intruders wore army camouflage, were masked and armed with M-16 assault guns.

“Police gave chase to the kidnappers and a shootout took place near Mataking Island.

“They however escaped and headed to a neighboring country,” deputy inspector-general of police Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin said in a press statement.

Bernama news also reported that Yang, who hails from Guangzhou, has worked at the fish farm, about 3km off Silam town, for some three years.

The news agency quoted Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) director-general Mohammad Mentek as saying that the abductors were “believed to be from the southern Philippines”.

Mohammad said that the farm was owned by a Hong Kong national and had 16 employees, eight each from the Timorese and Suluk communities. The latter had no valid personal documents, he said.

It is believed that the kidnappers had fled towards the southern Philippines. This was also where another two women were allegedly taken to, after being abducted from a Semporna resort early last month.

The latest kidnapping took place hardly 24 hours after pirates also robbed fishermen in the waters off Tanjung Labian.

Previously, gunmen kidnapped a Chinese tourist and a Filipino worker from a resort off Sabah.

Taken away on April 2, the previous abductors later asked for a hefty sum of 500 million pesos (RM36.4 million) for the release of one of the victims, the 29-year old Chinese tourist Gao Hua Yan, from Shanghai.

No ransom demand was made for 40-year-old Filipino resort worker, Marcy Darawan. 

 

There was no more news about the abduction as inspector-general of Police Khalid Abu Bakar last said on April 12 that it was inappropriate to provide any more updates on the situation.

 

Travel warnings

Sabah has been plagued by kidnappings, pirate activity and terrorists over the last decade and has earned international travel warnings from Western countries.

 

In the latest pirate incident reported, a group of armed men clad in army camouflage robbed four fishermen in Tanjong Labian before fleeing on Sunday night, according to the New Straits Times ( NST ).

 

Sabah police commissioner Hamza Taib ( righ t) told NST that the robbers, who spoke Malay and had made racist remarks, got away with four boat engines but left the fishermen otherwise unharmed.

Speaking at a press conference later, Hamza said that police are still investigating whether the kidnappers were the same group that had abducted a Chinese national earlier this year.

“Police have also detained 19 workers of the fish farm, 11 of them who are Suluk and the rest are Indonesians, to assist investigations. They all have valid documents.

“The fish farm is owned by a Hong Kong businessman and it has been in operation since 2006,” he said.

The boats they used to escape, Hamza said, are 200 horsepower which were far more powerful than the boats used by the marine police and Special Action Force.

 

Tanjung Labian, some 135km from Sabah’s east coast town of Lahad Datu, had been heavily guarded by the armed forces following the intrusion from members of ‘Royal Sulu Force’ last year, NST said.

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