ZAMBOANGA CITY – Philippine soldiers arrested 4 Abu Sayyaf rebels transporting explosives and grenades at a road black in the southern province of Sulu, officials told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner on Saturday.
Officials said the four – Jumli Pulah, Hassan Jubakal, Ingki Abdulah and Bashir Ali – were on a pick-up truck when soldiers stopped them in the village of Danag in Patikul town, a known stronghold of the rebel group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya.
Ensign Chester Ian Ramos, a military spokesman, said one of those captured – Pulah – is wanted by authorities for a string of criminal charges. The others, he said, were being interrogated in an undisclosed location.
Ramos said soldiers recovered from the truck 152 liters of ammonium nitrate – a banned chemical fertilizer, but is a key ingredient in the manufacture of homemade explosives widely used by the Abu Sayyaf in their attacks on civilian and military targets – and three pieces of MK2 fragmentation grenades, including two bottles of TNT and two pieces of blasting caps, and batteries and electrical wire.
He said Col. Alan Arrojado, commander of an anti-terror task force, in his report, claimed that the truck was being used by the Abu Sayyaf to transport weapons and munitions, and in kidnapping activities in the province.
The truck came from Jolo town and was heading to Patikul when troops intercepted the rebels.
No other details were made available by the military about the arrest of the four men, but military sources claimed that an Abu Sayyaf informer tipped off authorities about the transport of the explosives by the rebels.
In Zamboanga City, Rear Admiral Reynaldo Yoma, commander of the Joint Task Force ZAMBASULTA, praised the capture of the rebels and said joint law enforcement operations against the Abu Sayyaf are continuing not only in Sulu, but other areas as well.
ZAMBASULTA is the acronym for Zamboanga (Peninsula), Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces where the Abu Sayyaf is actively operating.
“We are persistent to join hand-in-hand with other law enforcement agencies in Sulu to apply the rule of law so that the bandits will face trials and put behind bars,” Yoma said. (Mindanao Examiner)
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