Abductors contact Chinese tourist's family
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A phone call has been made to the family of Chinese tourist Gao Huayun, who was kidnapped along with a Filipino worker from a Sabah dive resort last Wednesday, Malaysia's security authorities said.
Mohammad Mentek, director-general of the Eastern Sabah Security Command – a security zone set up on the east coast of Sabah – confirmed that abductors had contacted the family.
“The call was made by a representative of the gunmen who informed the family that [the] victims are safe,” he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times. “However, as far as I know, no demand has been made.”
Gao, 29, was abducted together with Marcy Dayawan, 40, late last Wednesday night in a resort off the east coast of Sabah by gunmen believed to be from the southern Philippines.
Gao had arrived at the resort the day before with a friend to learn scuba-diving.
It is not known if Dayawan’s family was contacted by the abductors as well.
The two women were believed to have been taken to Simunul, a town on a southern Philippine island 145km from the resort where they were kidnapped, before being moved to Jolo Island, also in southern Philippines.
The abductors’ identities are not known, although police suspect the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, which kidnapped two Malaysians in Sabah two years ago.
Since Thursday, Sabah police have detained 17 people, including two resort employees and another two, believed to be Dayawan’s parents, to assist in investigations.
Sabah police chief Hamza Taib declined to reveal more on grounds that it would jeopardise investigations.
Malaysia had pledged to tighten security in the coastal parts of Sabah after a group of Sulu gunmen invaded a village in east Sabah a year ago to reclaim the state for a defunct sultanate.
Last November, a Taiwanese tourist was kidnapped in Sabah and her partner was shot by gunmen believed to be from the southern Philippines.
China’s deputy consul-general Liu Dongyuan, based in Kuching, has appealed to the police to hasten their investigations.
“We also emphasise to the police that our priority is to keep the victim safe,” she told
