KOTA KINABALU: A VAT69 commando leader told the High Court here yesterday he and his team would have been exposed to danger had he given the three armed intruders who were shot dead in Kampung Tanjung Batu, Lahad Datu, on March 6 the option to surrender.
Inspector Shahar Omar said that at that time, he was not certain if there were other intruders besides the three who were shot.
“If I let them (armed intruders) to surrender, it will affect or expose our position and I will be putting the team at risk,” he added.
Questioned by Deputy Public Prosecutor Abdul Wahab Mohamed on what he understood by the word ‘surrender’, Shahar said it meant the intruders must put down their weapons and raise their hands.
Abdul Wahab: Throughout your duty at Kampung Tanduo and Kampung Tanjung Batu, were there armed intruders who put down their weapons and raised their hands?
Shahar: None.
During cross-examination, Shahar said he disagreed with counsel Datuk N Sivananthan that the three intruders, who were armed with machetes, posed no threat whatsoever to his team of 12 men who were carrying guns.
Asked by Sivananthan how the intruders could have been a threat to his team, Shahar said the three intruders wore army fatigue and that before the incident at Kampung Tanjung Batu, flyers had been dropped in the Kampung Tanduo area saying any intruder who wanted to surrender was not allowed to carry any kind of weapon.
In the shootout at Kampung Tanduo, involving his team in Sector A on March 1, Shahar said the firepower from the intruders’ weapons was greater than his and his team’s.
He said his team members were carrying M16 (M203) weapons and two Bushmasters that could fire 5.56mm bullets.
Sivananthan: Did any of your men use 7.62mm bullets?
Shahar: No. Not my team.
Sivananthan: In VAT69, are these bullets used in any weapon?
Shahar: In VAT69, that bullet is used in supporting weapons.
Sivananthan: In terms of firepower, are those (supporting) weapons more lethal?
Shahar: Yes.
Shahar had told the court earlier that there were more than two intruders firing at his team of 18 at Kampung Tanduo and that the intruders’ firepower was greater than his team’s. When Sivananthan pursued the matter, Shahar said the firepower of weapons shooting 7.62mm bullets was greater than those that could shoot 5.56mm bullets.
Sivananthan: Are you saying the enemies (intruders) were using 7.62mm bullets?
Shahar: Some were using 7.62mm bullets, some 5.56mm.
Thirty accused, comprising 27 Filipinos and three local residents, are standing trial.
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 willfully 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 continues today before Justice Stephen Chung. It is being convened at the Sabah Prisons Department. — Bernama