The four Sarawakian hostages who were freed by Abu Sayyaf militants last week are not allowed to go back to Sibu by the police as the investigations into their kidnapping is not yet completed.
After several rounds of negotiations, four Sarawakian sailors; Wong Teck Kang, 31, and Wong Teck Chii, 29, their cousin Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21, and Wong Hung Sing, 34, were released at the coastal village of Patikul on Tuesday evening.
They returned to Sandakan, Sabah on Wednesday and later they were flown to Kota Kinabalu to facilitate investigations. They also met their family members who came all the way from Sarawak to meet them.
However, Sabah Police Commissioner Abdul Rashid Harun refused to comment on when the four will be allowed to go back to Sibu. But he said that they were still in Kota Kinabalu.
AFP reported that in a simple text message, he said, "Let us do our job".
The four sailors were kidnapped by eight armed men in the waters of Semporna, off Pulau Ligitan while they were returning to Malaysia from Philippines.
