SERIAN: One man was killed while two others were wounded when the vehicle they were travelling in was fired upon by an unknown person at an oil palm plantation in Melikin near here yesterday.
The incident occurred shortly past noon when the trio, who are workers of the plantation company, were travelling in a Toyota Hilux along the dirt road to their office.
District police chief DSP Mohd Jamali Umi said the shooting happened when the victims were about one-and-a-half kilometres away from the company’s office.
“We have yet to identify the shooter whom we believe acted alone and who discharged a shotgun from a hill within the plantation itself,” he said in a text message following the incident.
The deceased has been identified by police as John Wong Toh Kiong, 46, from Nyebong Padi in Sarikei, who died from gunshot wounds to his chest and face. Wong was said to be the driver of the vehicle
The two passengers in the vehicle, including the company’s 40-year-old senior assistant manager, suffered gunshot wounds to the chest and left arm respectively.
Both are reported to be in stable condition.
Meanwhile, state Police Commissioner Dato Wira Muhammad Sabtu Osman told The Borneo Post that based on initial investigation, the shooting was not related to any native land dispute between local villagers and the plantation company.
“We have not yet established a motive behind the shooting, but we believe it has nothing to do with any land dispute in the area because many local villagers are working for the company at the plantation,” he said when contacted late yesterday.
However, he said there were disputes in the past between the company and the villagers.
Sabtu also disclosed that police personnel from the forensics unit were deployed to the scene to gather evidence following the shooting while roadblocks were also set up at Balai Ringin and along the Serian-Sri Aman Road.
Over the past year, villagers in Melikin have claimed that their NCR lands were illegally encroached into and they were victims of violence and threats by thugs allegedly hired by plantation companies.
They have also accused the local police of failing to act on their police reports, which Jamali refuted during a press conference in November last year citing a Sept 30 raid in which a number of dangerous weapons, including guns and live ammunition, were seized from the workers’ quarters at an oil palm plantation in Balai Ringin.