Malaysian police said Saturday they had arrested 79 people in Sabah state on the island of Borneo as skirmishes to end a month-long incursion by armed Filipino Islamists left one more dead, reported AFP.
The death of a suspected militant in a shootout Saturday raised the toll to 61 as Malaysian authorities pursued scores of Filipino gunmen who landed in Sabah last month to resurrect long-dormant land claims.
Federal police chief Ismail Omar said operations to "flush out" the intruders were continuing, with one militant shot dead as he sought to escape a security cordon around two villages and overgrown plantation and swamp land.
"Up to now the police have arrested 79 suspects whom we believe have some links with the intrusion," he said without specifying where the suspects were seized or giving more details on them.
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Malaysian police said on Friday they have arrested more than 50 people in a remote state since the start of a nearly month-long incursion by Filipinos.
Malaysia has said previously that clashes between the gunmen and its security forces had left 60 people dead and has rejected a call by the fighters' leader for a ceasefire in a farming region where the militants were being pursued.
In announcing the arrests, federal police chief Ismail Omar said they had all occurred in other areas of the state of Sabah, outside the battlezone where the militants and armed forces were facing off.
"Outside the operation area, police already arrested certain suspects who we believe have links to the invaders," Ismail said.
He said more than 50 had been arrested, including men and women. He declined to give any further details on the identities of those arrested, including whether they were foreigners or Malaysians.
Scores of followers of a self-proclaimed Philippine sultan landed in the state on Borneo island last month to assert a long-dormant territorial claim in what has become Malaysia's worst security crisis in years.
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