A police rescue team searched every house at Kampung Sri Jaya in Simunul, Semporna for trapped security personnel, following an ambush on March 2, last year to arrest a suspect linked to the Lahad Datu intrusion, the High Court in Kota Kinabalu was told today.

Rescue team leader DSP Hisham Mahmood said he had instructed his team, which had been divided into two groups, to carry out a ‘flushing’ operation on each house to ensure there were no armed intruders who could jeopardise their safety whilst they searched for their fellow policemen.

He told the court he and his team entered Kampung Sri Jaya at 2.15pm on March 3 last year and began the flushing-cum-search operation on the houses at Bridge 5 of the water village.

“When we were at a surau near house no. 15, I received a report from one of the rescue personnel, saying he saw someone waving a police vest from the verandah of house no. 19,” he said, adding that he believed it was where some of the security personnel were trapped.

Asked by deputy public prosecutor Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar whether he had called the operations room at the Semporna police headquarters, Hisham said he had contacted the operations room via walkie-talkie to inform the person in charge to call the trapped personnel to roll up their sleeves to their shoulders for identification.

He said his team then moved to houses no. 16 and 17 where they carried out the flushing operation, only to find them unoccupied.

However, when the rescue team was in house no. 17, he said he saw movement in the next house which was about seven metres from house no. 17.

“I instructed a group to carry out the flushing operation on house no. 18 and another group to guard around the house.

“The group that carried out the flushing operation found five security personnel trapped in the house and seized firearms belonging to the trapped security personnel which were an M-16 rifle, pistol and a Bushmaster,” he said.

Mohd Dusuki: Why was there a seizure of firearms belonging to the trapped security personnel?

Hisham: According to procedure, before identifying the occupants of the house, we need to make an overall check on the house as we did not know who the personnel were in the house at that time.

The rescue team leader said his team then proceeded to house no. 19, which was about 10 metres away from house no. 18, and found 10 security personnel trapped, one of whom was seriously injured; six arrestees, some of whom were handcuffed and others whose hands were bound with rope.

‘There was a body in front of the door’

He also said there was a body in front of the door and covered with a woman’s sarong, which he later found to be that of Bukit Aman Special Branch officer Superintendent Ibrahim Lebar.

Hisham said his team seized a Bushmaster firearm, eight pistols of various types and three M-16 rifles belonging to the security personnel trapped in house no. 19, as well as another M-16 rifle which bore the words, ‘Made in Philippines’, believed to belong to the armed intruders.

He told the court that the following house which the rescue team inspected - house no. 20 - had no occupant, but there was a body in a boat underneath the house which he believed was the body of an armed intruder, judging from his clothes.

He said his team discovered a body on the plank walk in the rear of house no. 22.

When the rescue team proceeded to house no. 25, Hisham said they discovered three more security personnel trapped in the house, along with an old woman and a younger woman, believed to be her daughter.

He also said a body was discovered floating in the water near house no. 25, which he later found to be the body of Corporal Salam Togiran.

After finding the next house - house no. 26 - unoccupied, Hisham said his team proceeded to house no. 27 on whose verandah were two bodies. One of the bodies which was beheaded was clad in General Operations Force (GOF) uniform, while the other was in civilian clothes.

There were also two more bodies underneath the house - one in GOF uniform and the other in civilian clothes, he said.

Thirty accused, comprising 27 Filipinos and three local residents, are being tried in the case, in which some are facing multiple charges of being members of a terrorist group or waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, recruiting members for a terrorist group or wilfully harbouring individuals they knew to be members of a terrorist group.

They allegedly committed the offences between Feb 12 and April 10 last year.

The hearing before Justice Stephen Chung at the Sabah Prisons Department continues tomorrow.

- Bernama