KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 (NNN-Bernama) — The threat of Abu Sayyaf group believed to be based in Jolo, Sulu, on islands in eastern Sabah is still high despite the establishment of Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCom), said Inspector-General of Police, Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Bador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said attacks by the group can happen everyday and at anytime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs such, ESSCom will be restructured on the placement of security forces involving the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF), police as well as the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAmong others, the restructuring will involve the structure of security in the areas and the change of security posts which have been taken over by police and MAF would be updated,\u201d he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama at Bukit Aman headquarters here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abdul Hamid said the restructuring process is being carried out via the National Security Council (NSC) to strengthen further ESSCom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said threats to the islands of Sabah is always there everyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is because Sabah is very near to the Philippines, it only takes 15 minutes by speed boat to reach Philippines waters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abdul Hamid said it was easy for Abu Sayyaf group to intrude into Malaysian waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHowever, the Philippines government had earlier created an overall security control on Jolo islands near Kunak as well Lahad Datu, Sabah and the new measure has eased our concerns,\u201d he said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonetheless, he said ESSCom needs to be on the alert on any threats when conducting operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On May 6, Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu announced ESSCom would be restructured to improve security on the eastern coast of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to him, the National Security Council is discussing the decision including efforts to acquire additional equipment to boost security teams under ESSCom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NNN-BERNAMA
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KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 (NNN-Bernama) — The threat of Abu Sayyaf group believed to be based in Jolo, Sulu, on islands in eastern Sabah is still high despite the establishment of Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCom), said Inspector-General of Police, Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Bador. He said attacks by the group can happen everyday and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":28199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288,318],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28197"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}