sibu was placed under curfew for 24 hours in 1972. Food was scarce and patrol boats plied up and down the Rajang calling people to stay at home.
First the RASCOM controlled food supply to the Communists in the jungle by checking movements of the people. No one could have more than enough food in the house. Every bicycle which passed by the checkpoints must be checked, including the bicycle tires!!
In some places I heard the Police and the Army even gave body checks. People lived in fear.
Gun shots were heard very often as the Army, the Police and the Police Field Force members (then known as the Security Armed Forces) were patrolling specific areas to RAT out the underground guerrillas. Sometimes they slept in temporary camps, or they used the smoke houses, or the jetties like Paradom.
They would bring with them food rations. Sometimes when their patrol was over, they left the tinned food with the villagers who were ever so grateful.
The Police Field Force had grenades, good guns and even machine guns which could kill many at any single time if they found the CCO hideouts. Then they would bring out the dead bodies to the jetties to be brought to Sibu. These could be horrible sights.
But the most horrible sights were those ordinary people who were killed by the CCO. These were those whom they deemed to be government informers who should die terrible deaths.
An example of the torture was to kill the informants by driving a few 7 inch nails into their brains. These dead bodies thrown by the roadside would not be claimed by the grieving families out of fear. The Security Forces would be informed and they would come and bury the dead.
It was truly a traumatic time for the villagers of the Rajang Valley.
But
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