5 Years Later
ELDERLY CHINESE FARMER DISARMS BURGLARS WITH BLOWPIPE
June 5, 2086111Please respect copyright.PENANAHhv5t8YN0X
Beijing – A farmer in the remote province of Qinghai on the Tibetan plateau disarmed two111Please respect copyright.PENANAnM36YSSW9j
burglars with a blowpipe. The elderly farmer in his 70s was awakened from his111Please respect copyright.PENANALMalCU8p1C
sleep in the middle of the night from sound coming from his kitchen. Using a111Please respect copyright.PENANAwje8Hd2otw
blowpipe, he disabled both burglars as they were scrounging around his home.111Please respect copyright.PENANAGVzQp3KdqC
The darts used had a powerful tranquilizing drug used on animals. When asked111Please respect copyright.PENANABWhfehx63Z
how he acquired the blowpipe, he said he instinctively knew how to make the 5-foot111Please respect copyright.PENANAratFmtzOTx
long blowpipe out of bamboo. He was not taught the trade. A blowpipe is a111Please respect copyright.PENANAjoVyo9k5Dj
weapon indigenous to tribes of Borneo, an island in the South China Sea. AFP.
“Did you read today’s report of a farmer in a remote part of China using a blowpipe to111Please respect copyright.PENANATt24khn6qD
knock down two burglars?” Cheng asked Hiang as she came into the office during111Please respect copyright.PENANA0izgQcKTKJ
her usual start of the day.
“What of it?” she asked unconcerned.
“It strikes me as odd that this farmer on the Tibetan plateau knew how to use a blowpipe.”
“Tibetan plateau?”
Strange stories always catch her attention. She looked up the piece on her screen.
“I can see why it made the news,” she said. “Anyways, what do we have on our agenda111Please respect copyright.PENANAIPh26wNv1h
today?”
They discussed the topics of the day that would potentially appear in the paper111Please respect copyright.PENANA2Tq0853mSv
tomorrow.
But the story stuck in her mind: the blowpipe is a weapon indigenous to Borneo in the111Please respect copyright.PENANAKNtCXdWX0y
South China Sea and the Kadazans, of whom Nur was a member, are from Borneo.
She recalled an interview she had of a Chinese retiree in Malaysia who had called her 4111Please respect copyright.PENANASKX2299aCq
years ago after she had printed an article of Nur in the Singapore Times. The111Please respect copyright.PENANAsTlFFqoAtC
article was an account of her search of the special forces officer over 6 years111Please respect copyright.PENANAjnkRYeWw1w
culminating in her visit to the Etajima Naval Academy where she witnessed his111Please respect copyright.PENANATm8nRVWI0n
death on video.
The retiree had a rank equal to a Lt Col in the Singapore Armed Forces when he was with111Please respect copyright.PENANAx2M6zc44g0
China’s People’s Liberation Army. Lt Col Shang claimed he was a captain when he111Please respect copyright.PENANAeHPvbmwTtb
was attached to the Intelligence Department of the PLA. He said he recognized111Please respect copyright.PENANA5iZXaKnp6Q
Major Nur as the prisoner he was tasked with keeping watch over in 2051. She111Please respect copyright.PENANA8F3IqsgYZo
had a meeting with him in Johor Bahru in a café in a busy Shopping Mall.
“How sure are you this person was Major Nur?” she had asked.
“He had a strange story. We knew he came from an observation post on an island in the111Please respect copyright.PENANAk6PiONzStu
South China Sea. But he couldn’t remember anything from his past. Maybe he was111Please respect copyright.PENANAD2kNrVb2lV
faking it. We couldn’t be sure. So we kept him for 5 months asking the same111Please respect copyright.PENANAdgcL1hxMve
questions over and over again.”
“How did he survive that episode near Tioman island?”
“Apparently the Japanese had scuba divers in the water as soon as they spotted his body. He111Please respect copyright.PENANAMqpbc6vMzy
was a high priority target and they wanted him alive. They pulled him out of111Please respect copyright.PENANAIlRANGL3Os
the water and applied CPR.”
“I saw he was in the water for 20 minutes his head submerged. How could anyone be111Please respect copyright.PENANASDFpoLdigM
resuscitated after being in the water for 20 minutes?”
He shrugged. Hiang eyed him as he answered the questions. He seemed sincere. And what good111Please respect copyright.PENANALMXMNT3s9s
would it do him to create a story like this?
“Where was he sent after the 5 months of interrogation?”
“We did everything, torture, drugs, even changed our tactics by providing him comfort111Please respect copyright.PENANAcrgZIiw2OI
and good food. But he couldn’t remember. After 5 months he was sent back to the111Please respect copyright.PENANAYjTtcG5nlT
POW department. Not sure what happened to him after that.”
“Any tattoos on him?”
“Yes, there was one, the US Navy Seals trident on his left arm.”
Hiang was startled. There was no account anywhere in her article of the trident tattoo,111Please respect copyright.PENANA1F0CWLSqPi
nor for that matter anywhere in the internet. And Nur had that tattoo on his111Please respect copyright.PENANA0RrWpaKZAj
left arm. However most US Navy Seals graduates do this kind of stuff, as a kind111Please respect copyright.PENANA7u6msEAKKg
of badge of honor. So it wasn’t unique nor conclusive.
She tried to get corroborating evidence from other sources including through Gen Sofi’s111Please respect copyright.PENANAaJM8ihweQq
successor. But there was none. It was a dead end. And now this article about a blowpipe in the Tibetan plateau far from111Please respect copyright.PENANA9LQzOUpqWq
its place of origin. If Nur was alive he would be in his 70s, the age of that111Please respect copyright.PENANAQKKLu9zXc0
elderly farmer.
“Let’s send Jenny to Qinghai,” Hiang said to Cheng a month later.
“What for?”
“I am intrigued by that blowpipe story.”
“You think there might be a connection with Nur?”
She nodded. “I was looking for corroborating evidence when the PLA officer claimed to have111Please respect copyright.PENANAyYdpwvu5Zz
seen Nur after the Tioman incident, and I think this is it.”
“Could someone be alive after been in the water for almost 30 minutes?” Cheng asked.
“Nur was especially fit and at the prime of his life. I wouldn’t discount that111Please respect copyright.PENANArlFJzdyu50
possibility.”
And Jenny, one of her Senior Journalist, went on a trip to Qinghai.
111Please respect copyright.PENANA1oBxQiEMD3
111Please respect copyright.PENANAPWFwNj9tsX
111Please respect copyright.PENANAcAF5Gj1YXV
111Please respect copyright.PENANAHcZI7FT1SQ
111Please respect copyright.PENANAe8Zd85ps6j
111Please respect copyright.PENANAU3yQNNefqv
111Please respect copyright.PENANAKBiUOSKsh7
111Please respect copyright.PENANAwW1P3pV5DP
111Please respect copyright.PENANASk2kTxNltK
111Please respect copyright.PENANAZmCcDexyoy
111Please respect copyright.PENANANGv7FcpGgB
111Please respect copyright.PENANAH3OqTK7iP1
111Please respect copyright.PENANAxyBSw9JbsB
111Please respect copyright.PENANAeHaPAzw0Zf
111Please respect copyright.PENANA6UZo29HKxk
111Please respect copyright.PENANAfVphR88P3V
111Please respect copyright.PENANASnrBDCROG5
111Please respect copyright.PENANAFRm5XDrLCV
111Please respect copyright.PENANAx7apevH151
111Please respect copyright.PENANAmzyhMB1G0Z
111Please respect copyright.PENANAEASjiFSk17
111Please respect copyright.PENANAUp7VOnTLqe
111Please respect copyright.PENANAqxKvS0K2tB
111Please respect copyright.PENANAoXLUcs2ZdQ
111Please respect copyright.PENANAYy3zUo6xM3
111Please respect copyright.PENANAHK0Gu5uAw8
111Please respect copyright.PENANAxJqw2zHd5A
111Please respect copyright.PENANAYovQvciu6c
111Please respect copyright.PENANAd7jZa4ziay
111Please respect copyright.PENANAx2KxWrby6d
111Please respect copyright.PENANApCvSEgNB9Z
111Please respect copyright.PENANAsITfzyOOit
111Please respect copyright.PENANABG4UG468Xf
111Please respect copyright.PENANAffZDL2Bskb
111Please respect copyright.PENANARXnRQXXqI8
111Please respect copyright.PENANAUIPerz5hZL
111Please respect copyright.PENANAs5Gcc4U1nh
111Please respect copyright.PENANAUG9gOZ1wZC
111Please respect copyright.PENANAjvbwhlyQuI
111Please respect copyright.PENANAQNNfnHqzxi
111Please respect copyright.PENANAhVaTlKl8qb
111Please respect copyright.PENANAP79NcK3l6t
111Please respect copyright.PENANA3oeJKDXy29
111Please respect copyright.PENANAGzvQpiRx1i
111Please respect copyright.PENANAlJj6AlILGk
111Please respect copyright.PENANAEAfXMWdn66
111Please respect copyright.PENANAtYJoWBS7TS
111Please respect copyright.PENANAkkUDEENIyX
111Please respect copyright.PENANAwO3eg9Ksxq
111Please respect copyright.PENANAgTbn3AGltU
111Please respect copyright.PENANAhutuG1Mor9
111Please respect copyright.PENANAW1cUrFJ6Ot
111Please respect copyright.PENANAbVCV4AV2FT
111Please respect copyright.PENANAOt0FRIPRHp
111Please respect copyright.PENANAUYy5dQNcWq
111Please respect copyright.PENANAK7X0UFRtjp
111Please respect copyright.PENANA40ipeY95mf
111Please respect copyright.PENANAv5bK8aGw7y
111Please respect copyright.PENANAQMLptfdN07
111Please respect copyright.PENANANCffzuH1Vq
111Please respect copyright.PENANASffAVf5Xau
111Please respect copyright.PENANAFxa5h55QIg
111Please respect copyright.PENANARfkeP79z8l
111Please respect copyright.PENANA8pzJEOdnPE
111Please respect copyright.PENANAUZT5tR3Ee4
111Please respect copyright.PENANAezy3OTtdFk
111Please respect copyright.PENANAOtneO8bi22
111Please respect copyright.PENANASWHAxWhwKG
111Please respect copyright.PENANAHeSZ3r3oBi
111Please respect copyright.PENANAlcCMgF6TbD
111Please respect copyright.PENANAE3geO1x7vW
111Please respect copyright.PENANAFI7ql639TD
ns 172.70.178.99da2