ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 3, 2014) – Armed men clad in white robes have seized Monday three students of a private school and their family driver in the southern Filipino town of Jolo, police said.
Police said the victims – two children and a teenager – were in a car driven by Saddam Amlih, 24, on their way to Notre Dame School when a jeep used by the gunmen blocked their path on General Arolas Street in the village of Alat.
“They four victims were forcibly taken by seven armed in Tabligh attire and fled towards Patikul town,” police chief Abraham Orbita told The Manila Times. “Police forces responded as soon as we received the information, but did not catch up with the abductors. We are investigating the incident.”
Tabligh refers to a preacher and the robe they use is called thawb or thobe or kandura.
The mayor of Jolo, Hussin Amin, did not give any statement about the latest abduction and no individual or group claimed responsibility for the incident, but authorities have largely blamed Abu Sayyaf rebels for the spate of ransom kidnappings in the area.
Just last month, suspected Abu Sayyaf also abducted a couple – Bonifacio Salinas, 54, and his wife, Claire – who are both working for the Jolo Mainland Water District.
In December, police arrested an Abu Sayyaf member Haik Asgali alias Abu Aswad who was linked to the February 2012 kidnapping in Tawi-Tawi province of two European wildlife photographers Ewold Horn, 52, from Holland; and Lorenzo Vinciguerre, 47, from Switzerland.
Asgali, who was captured in Jolo town, is a nephew of Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sahiron.
The two foreigners, along with their Filipino guide Ivan Sarenas, 35, were abducted at gunpoint by five men in the coastal village of Parangan in Panglima Sugala town while taking photographs of wild birds, and handed them over to the Abu Sayyaf. Sarenas managed to escape, but the fate of the two foreigners is unknown.
The Abu Sayyaf also kidnapped the provincial treasurer of Sulu, Jess Cabilin, in Patikul town in November and was a released unharmed following a negotiation launched by his family.
Authorities tagged Cabelin’s kidnappers as Ninok Sappari and Julli Ikit who were also implicated in the March 2012 kidnapping of Indian national Viju Kolara Veetil and other Filipinos in Sulu, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region. (Mindanao Examiner)
20