KOTA KINABALU: The police are maintaining a tight lid on their investigation into the Lahad Datu kidnapping case, saying that revelation of any details now may compromise the safety of the victims.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin confirmed yesterday that they were still working with the authorities in the southern Philippines, but declined to reveal any information they may have gathered since the incident which took place in the middle of last month.
“Everyone must understand that the safety of the victims is paramount and that our next line of action must be concealed,” he told reporters when asked for an update on the case.
He only revealed that reliable intelligence indicated that the victims were “still there” and investigators were looking at why they were taken to where they were being held.
He said the police have not made any arrests nor detained anyone to facilitate their investigation so far.
The victims, a 33-year-old plantation manager and his 25-year-old cousin, were abducted by five armed men from a bird’s nest farm in an oil palm plantation in Timbun Mata, some 50 km from Lahad Datu on Nov 13.
The kidnappers, believed to be from southern Philippines, took them away in an outboard engine boat, according to two workers who were with the victims when the gang came.
The victims known only as the Tungs were the son and nephew of the owner of the plantation, a West Malaysian businessman.
The incident, which was the second one in Sabah since the widely reported kidnapping of Western tourists in Sipadan over 10 years ago, have raised questions on security and capability of the authorities in protecting the state waters, especially the notoriously porous borderline in the east coast.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said in the week following the incident that he had directed the state police to make the necessary arrangement with the related agencies in the neighbouring country to minimise the risk of such inter-borders kidnapping from happening again.
State Police Commisioner Datuk Hamza Taib later announced that they had identified the whereabouts of the two victims and that a joint-rescue effort was being undertaken together with the Philippines’ authorities.