KOTA KINABALU: Police believe they may have solved the shooting spree incidents, which damaged more than 40 premises around the state capital and in Penampang early this month, with the arrest of five more individuals.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar yesterday said that the case of the random shooting at 46 business premises in Kota Kinabalu was considered solved after police arrested five men believed to be local gangsters and car repossessors.
It is learnt that the five men were arrested around the state capital on the morning on January 28. They are currently being remanded for 14 days to assist investigation.
The latest arrests have brought the total number to eight people being detained after police had earlier remanded three individuals to assist police in their investigation.
The drive-by shooting early this month had cause unnecessary panic as a group of individuals went around the state capital shooting at 46 premises with what is believed to be air guns loaded with marbles.
The group was said to have moved around the state capital in three vehicles shooting at premises along their way in the city centre, Inanam, Luyang and Penampang between 11.45pm on January 10 until 6am on January 11.
Among the premises affected were banks, hotels, beauty saloons, restaurants, offices, a petrol station, car showrooms and shopping malls with losses estimated to be around hundreds and thousands of ringgit.
No known casualty was reported in the incident, which reportedly brought about some degree of panic and apprehension in the social media, Facebook and WhatsApp.
Meanwhile, Khalid warned that no individual will escape action by the authorities for issuing statements that offend religious sensitivities, even if the statements were made on social websites from outside the country.
He said police would still take tough action to ensure that people would not wantonly issue irresponsible statements as this could cause racial tension.
“Action will be taken against whatever comments made against any religion in Malaysia, even if made through social websites from outside the country.”
He was commenting on a statement made by a Facebook account owner who goes by the name of Man Namblast which touched on Hindu religious sensitivities during the recent Thaipusam celebration.
Khalid said police together with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission were now trying to detect the Facebook account owner involved.
“So far, there has been no arrest made. In such cases, we could sometimes detect the culprits early while there have also been instances where we took a bit more time, especially when the offending statements were made from abroad.
“But, we will still detect the offenders and take action against them,” he added.