Border security boost at Sabah's east coast after church bombing in southern Philippines

KOTA KINABALU:  The Home Ministry has instructed all enforcement agencies to increase border security along Sabah's east coast following the fatal church bombing in the southern Philippines island of Jolo on Jan 27.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman (pic) said he has personally informed the heads of all the enforcement agencies including the police, Armed Forces, Civil Defence Department and Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) to boost security measures in the area.

 "I contacted all the directors to ask them to tighten up border security because we do not want a repetition of 1972, which saw many refugees from the Philippines fleeing to Sabah amid the civil war in their country," he said at a press conference in a hypermarket at Inanam on Sunday (Feb 3).

Mohd Azis, who is Sepanggar MP, was referring to the armed conflict in southern Philippines, which was said to be the main factor behind the influx of Filipino Muslim refugees in Sabah between 1972 and 1984.

"We don't want them fleeing to Malaysia not because we are cruel, but because we don't want the conflict from our neighbouring country to spread here.

"As it is, Malaysia is already facing many problems regarding illegal immigrants especially in Sabah. We don't want to court more problems," he added.

Reuters reported that the church bombing, which killed 22 people and wounded more than 100 including civilians and soldiers, was a suicide attack carried out by an Indonesian couple with assistance from an Islamic State-linked group.

A few days later, two people were killed while four others were wounded after a grenade was thrown into a mosque at Zamboanga City on the night of Jan 30.

However, the commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Joint Task Force (AFP-JTF) Zamboanga claimed that the incident was not a retaliatory act over the twin explosions at the church in Jolo.