KOTA KINABALU: Sabah security forces are still verifying information suggesting that three missing crewmen of a trawler have been kidnapped and taken to the Abu Sayyaf stronghold of Jolo in the Philippines.
Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) commander Datuk Hazani Ghazali said they have yet to get proof of the rumoured kidnapping, as told by regional intelligence sources.
"We have yet to get a call from anyone about this," he said when contacted on Sunday (Dec 9).
He said there were also no clues on board the vessel when it was found listing with its engines running near Pegasus Reef, near Tambisan Island off Lahad Datu on Dec 6.
"There was nothing (on board), only the missing crewmen," Hazani said.
The matter of the missing crewmen came to light when the trawler owner, a Sandakan based businessman, could not contact them from 7.30pm onwards on Dec 5.
The owner lodged a police report the next day (Dec 6).
Earlier, Sabah police commissioner Datuk Omar Mammah said there was another incident within the same vicinity and time, where a boat skipper was shot in the thigh following an attempted tugboat heist by four masked gunmen.
He had said that police were checking if these two incidents were connected, and done by the same group of suspects.
Sources believe that the four gunmen had fled the tugboat after its skipper fired shots from a flare gun, before moving away and attacking the trawler while taking its crew as hostage.
The skipper was shot in the thigh and is reported to be recuperating.
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