Malaysia nabs 32 Filipinos – report

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysian security forces on Monday, April 7, stopped a boat carrying 32 armed Filipinos, according to a report by the Agence France-Presse. 

Malaysian state media Bernama reported the police has not identified the nationalities of the 32, however.

Sabah police chief Hamza Taib said the group, armed with guns and machetes, was arrested about 12 nautical miles from the state’s east coast, less than an hour away by boat from the southern Philippines. They were believed to be trying to join a two-month-old incursion into the east Malaysian state of Sabah.

More than 200 armed Islamist followers of the self-styled “Sultan of Sulu” — a new-defunct southern Philippine sultanate — landed in February to claim Sabah for their leader, reviving a centuries-old territorial row.

The incursion and a Malaysian counter-assault in early March left at least 68 militants dead along with 10 security personnel, according to authorities, and strained relations with Manila.

But authorities appear to have failed to catch most of the militants, leading to a prolonged security crisis which has forced Malaysia to relocate villages on the coast considered vulnerable to infiltration.

Philippine media earlier Monday had cited Muslim rebels as saying that 1,000 gunmen were trying to break through a naval blockade to support the fight against Malaysian security forces. – with Agence France-Presse