Malaysia: No fresh clashes with Kiram’s men

MANILA, Philippines - Malaysia has dismissed claims by the camp of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III of fresh clashes between his men and Malaysian security forces in the east coast of Lahad Datu district in Sabah.

In its website, Malaysia’s The Star newspaper quoted Eastern Sabah Security Command director Datuk Mohamad Mantek as dismissing the report as “absurd, mischievous and meant to cause unease.”

Mantek said no such thing happened and “an incident of such magnitude would not have gone unnoticed.”

“There were no intrusions and neither were there movements of people. Nothing at all,” he said.

Mantek added that the Malaysian police was still investigating a claim by a 14-year-old girl from Lahad Datu that a group of masked men took her to a plantation on Monday afternoon before they disappeared.

According to reports, some 400 men of Kiram’s security force engaged in a firefight with the Malaysian military in a village in Tungku near Lahad Datu Monday afternoon.

Abraham Idjirani claimed that the clashes were reported to him by Agbimuddin Kiram, brother of the Sulu sultan.

Idjirani claimed they were moving around in Tungku when they encountered the Malaysian troops, forcing them to retreat to their “base” in Lahad Datu.

Idjirani said the clashes in Tungku were also confirmed by Hajib Mujaha Hashim, chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front’s Islamic Command Council.