Police Urged To Step Up Intelligence To Identify Sources Funding Terrorist

The police have been urged to step up intelligence in repressing the sources that were funding the terrorists in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

Crime analyst Datuk Akhbar Satar said if the sources were found to be Malaysian citizen, they should be categorized as traitors and stripped of their citizenship and punished with a life sentence or the death penalty.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Datuk Seri Khalid Abu Bakar revealed Tuesday that police had intercepted cash remittance to Jolo Island in the Southern Philippines by individuals in Sandakan and Semporna, Sabah to allegedly sponsor the terrorists there.

"However, if those involved are not our citizens then they should be prosecuted according to our law," said Akhbar.

Malaysian Crime Prevention Awareness Board president Prof Datuk Seri Saharuddin Awang Yahya said if locals were indeed involved in financing the terrorists, it would pose a very serious threat to the country, and the culprits should rightly be stripped of their citizenship.

"Police must investigate from all aspects and be unyielding in their operations to include looking at politically motivated possibilities, and we should not compromise with any party," he stressed.

Former Inspector General of Police Tun Haniff Omar said if the mastermind behind the Lahad Datu intrusion were locals, they should be regarded as betrayers of the religion, race and country.

"I suggest that the Special Branch police nail the culprits and collect as much evidence they could against them," he told reporters after the launch of the National Human Resources Summit 2013, here.

He also welcomed any proposal to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the terrorist intrusion in Sabah.

-- BERNAMA