The whereabouts of the 72-year-old Raja Muda Azzimudie Kiram who led the armed Sulu intrusion into Kg Tanduo remain a mystery.
Azzimudie or Agbimuddin, the younger brother of self-styled Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram, disappeared without a trace after he "fled'' Lahad Datu on March 11 as Malaysian security forces recaptured Kampung Tanduo, Sabah in a massive offensive.
Security forces are certain that he fled to an island at Tawi Tawi province in the southern Philippines close to Sabah but family members insist he is in Lahad Datu waging a guerrilla war.
Tawi Tawi officials believe that he is with a network of sympathisers and has kept a low profile to avoid being detained by Manila which has ordered his arrest for waging a war with a foreign country.
It has also been speculated that Azzimudie, a former assistant district officer of Kudat, Sabah in the early 1970s, was killed by his bodyguard in Kampung Tanduo and buried in an unmarked grave sometime after the Malaysian air and ground offensive to flush out the Sulu gunmen began on March 5.
In an interview with The Star, Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said the police believed that Azzimudie was still alive and was hiding in some islands in his home country.
"Azzimudie is definitely not in Lahad Datu, they (Sulu spokesman Abraham Idjirani) can fly kites if they want to keep insisting that Azzimudie is in Lahad Datu, hiding and moving from one place to another,'' he said when asked about the persistent claims by the Sulu group spokesman Idjirani in the Philippines.
However, Hamza did not rule out the possibility that Aghimuddin was still planning to wage a guerrilla war against Sabah.
He suspected that Azzimudie's family members were insisting that the Raja Muda was still in Sabah because he (Azzimudie) had made many promises (before the intrusion) to Sulu gunmen, who were now dead or facing criminal charges in Malaysia.
"So to prevent him from being killed (in Philippines), they have to say that Azzimudie is in Lahad Datu and still fighting,'' he said, adding there had been no clashes between Sulu gunmen and security forces in Sabah since the intrusion was put down by early April.
Kampung Tanduo has since been closed to the public, with a security base set up at the seaside village and the state government working to relocate more than 20 local families in the area.
In a telephone interview with The Star in Manila, Idjirani, who is the brother-in-law of Azzimudie, insisted that Azzimudie was still "somewhere in Lahad Datu'' waging a guerrilla war against Sabah.
Idjirani, however, did not know the exact location of his brother-in-law.
“I know that he is hiding in a forest and has adopted guerrilla tactics and is moving from one place to another around Kampung Tanduo,” he said.
Idjirani claimed that he frequently spoke to Azzimudie.
"In fact, I spoke to him two days ago. He called us and told us that there was an encounter between the Royal Sulu Army and the Malaysian security forces in Mile 9 in Lahad Datu on June 16 and Kampung Labian on June 18,’’ he said.
The spokesman believed that the Malaysian security forces were unable to locate Azzimudie as he was no longer using his handphone.
"He is no longer is using his cell phone, as in March (during the aerial bombings), he realised that using his cell phone would lead to detection,’’ he said.
"The Raja Muda and his followers are seasoned fighters and even though the Malaysian forces have more firepower they could not defeat them," he said, in claiming that Malaysian forces were cautious in confronting them.
A total of 35 followers of Azzimudie were arrested by Philippines authorities after they returned from Lahad Datu and recently, the Philippines National Bureau of Investigations recommended various criminal charges - including waging war with a foreign country - be brought against the Raja Muda and his followers who entered Kampung Tanduo between Feb 9 and 12.
A total of 73 intruders were killed (59 bodies have been recovered) in the nearly eight-week armed showdown with Malaysian security forces.
Malaysian police have arrested 184 people and charged 31 with various criminal offences, including waging war against the Agong. Their cases are ongoing in court.
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