KOTA KINABALU: Security forces collected the bodies of 16 Sulu militant intruders at Kampung Tanjung Batu, Lahad Datu and sent them to the district hospital last year, the High Court was told yesterday.
ASP Zawi Awang said he and his team stumbled on 18 bodies while carrying out a cut-off operation at the village between March 8 and 10 last year. He said they received instructions to collect the bodies on the afternoon of March 10, but could only collect 16 as the other two were in a deep drain and could not be immediately retrieved.
“All the bodies were put in separate plastic body bags,” he added.
Asked by deputy public prosecutor Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar how the bodies were taken out of Kampung Tanjung Batu, Zawi said the bodies were ferried in two police trucks about 5pm that day, and taken to the VAT69 Tactical Base (Markas Taktikal VAT69) at Felda Sahabat 16.
“When we arrived at the tactical base at 5.30pm, I met with a forensics officer, Superintendant Shaid Aziz who instructed me to bring the bodies to a temporary hospital at Felda Sahabat, which was managed by the army.
“At the temporary hospital, I was instructed to send the bodies to the Lahad Datu Hospital,” he said.
He said the bodies were gathered onto a police truck and sent to the Lahad Datu Hospital about 7pm.
Zawi told the court that on March 13, last year, he and his team returned to Kampung Tanjung Batu to take over a cut-off operation from another team for the next seven days (until March 19).
He said no untoward incident occurred during that time.
Thirty accused, comprising 27 Filipinos and three local residents, are being tried in the case, in which 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 before Justice Stephen Chung at the Sabah Prisons Department continues today. — Bernama