One of five VAT69 police teams positioned at designated areas to cordon off Kampung Tanduo had yet to gather sufficient information on the Sulu intruders when it was attacked on March 1, last year.

“At that time (shootout), we had yet to gather enough information on the location of the armed intruders because it (information gathering) should be carried out by tactical ways,” Superintendent Mancha Anak Laga told the High Court which convened at the Sabah Prisons Department in Kota Kinabalu today.

He was testifying in the trial of 30 people charged with various offences related to terrorism activities in Sabah last year.

During cross-examination by lawyer Ram Singh, Mancha said part of his duties in the close reconnaissance operation at the village was to assess the strength of the intruders, the location of their strongholds and their sentries.

When Ram asked what the intruders meant by the words, “Tiger! Keluar kau dari sini. Ini bumi kami” (“Tiger! Get out of here. This is our land!”) upon encountering the VAT69 team, Mancha said the words meant that they were challenging his team to leave the area.

“Were these intruders rushing towards you and your team when they shouted those words?,” asked Ram, to which Mancha replied: “Yes.”

Mancha told the court the intruders’ act of rushing towards his team was to attack his team.

“When the intruders were moving by walking fast (towards my team), I saw they were aiming their firearms at us,” he said.

Earlier, when cross-examined by lawyer N Sivananthan, Mancha said he saw some of the intruders running away towards the direction of Kampung Tanduo when the shootout ended, but he did not pursue them.

“I have been attached with VAT69 for 28 years and I am experienced. Had I chased the intruders (who ran away from the shootout area), there was a possibility that I would have been ambushed and attacked by the armed intruders,” he reasoned.

Firearms and six machetes found

Mancha also said apart from firearms and six machetes found at the shoot-out area after it ended, there was a clothing bag which he did not open to see its contents.

Twenty-two of the 30 individuals jointly being tried, including two Malaysian men, are charged with waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment, and being members of a terrorist group, punishable with life imprisonment and a fine upon conviction.

Of the 22, one faces two additional charges of recruiting members of a terrorist group and harbouring persons knowing that they were members of a terrorist group.  

Of the remaining eight, five are accused of being members of a terrorist group; one of them, the sole woman of the 30 and a Malaysian citizen, is charged with harbouring persons knowing they were members of a terrorist group, while two are charged with attempting to harbour persons knowing they were members of a terrorist group.

The rest are Philippine nationals.

They are all accused of committing the respective offences between Feb 12 and April 10, last year.

The hearing before Justice Stephen Chung continues on Jan 15.

- Bernama