Police clamping down on criminal activities, thwart revenge attacks through Ops Cantas Khas
Dev Kumar
SIBU: In a pre-emptive move to thwart revenge attacks by associates of 30-year-old Ting Meng Min who was shot dead by unknown assailants last Saturday, the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) launched Ops Cantas Khas here on Monday.
State CID chief SAC Dev Kumar said the operation would be handled by a team comprising 20 officers and 92 rank-and-file personnel from the state police headquarters, CID Sibu and Narcotics Investigation Department led by deputy state CID chief ACP Abdul Razak.
The main reason behind the launching of the operation was to clamp down on criminal activities in the town, Dev Kumar said.
“The objective of this operation is to stop local thugs and their illegal businesses. The operation will focus on entertainment outlets, gambling shops, and places controlled and visited by thugs.”
Between Jan 10 and Jan 13, the police had inspected 35 premises for documentation, and inspected 43 illegal gambling games premises and a cock fighting site.
So far, 339 people had been questioned under the operation which resulted in 49 of them arrested. Of the 49, 12 were locals and the others, foreigners.
The CID police chief added that the police were also going after gangsters under the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 and last year, the police acted against 35 people under the Act.
During the press conference Dev Kumar also disclosed that the police were aware of rumours spread through the cyber network by netizens on Ting’s murder.
In the incident, Ting’s companion Xiao Fen, a female China national, was also shot at but her injury was not life-threatening.
Dev Kumar told a press conference among the rumours was that Ting was shot because of territorial dispute, competition for drugs market, retaliation and other reasons related to gangsterism.
“However, for now, the police can’t pinpoint the exact motive. We’re considering all those rumours.
“As for now, they remain as rumours until we have the facts. I would love to give answers, but we do not have them now,” he pointed out.
He said police had yet to identify the suspects and the vehicle used by them was yet to be found.
However, acting on information received, police arrested five men on Jan 10. Three of them had been released while the others, aged 42 and 35, are under remand until Jan 17.
“We believe that they might have some information about the motive of the killing. Rumours said they were possibly involved.
“So far, these two men are yet to reveal any information that is helpful to our investigation,” he disclosed.
Urging the public not to be unduly alarmed over the security of their town, Kumar said the shooting was an isolated case.
“Nevertheless, this is a high profile case because such cases rarely happened in the state; we look at this case very seriously,” he added.
This is the second murder case in Sibu this year. The first one occurred on Jan 4 when a man was found dead in Island Road. Four suspects relating to the case have been arrested.
According to the CID chief, there were six murder cases in 2014 and five last year in Sibu.
“There were no murder cases involving firearm or gangsters during those two years,” he added.
Based on statistics, there were 869 crime cases in Sibu last year as against 1,245 in the previous year.
Out of the 869 cases, 782 involved property crimes, while 87 cases involved violent crimes.
“Compared to 2014, property crimes showed a drop of 31 per cent while violent crimes showed a drop of 26 per cent last year,” Dev Kumar said.
Praising Sibu police for the achievement, he however said the townsfolk were still very much concerned about security.
“That is why one of the challenges for the police is to reduce people’s anxiety.
“And the police in Sarawak are making continuous effort to reduce such fear.”