5 Malaysian sailors missing off Sabah, feared kidnapped by Sayyaf

Malaysian media, quoting Sabah Police Chief Abdul Rashid Harun, said fishermen had spotted on July 18 the empty tugboat with its engine still running, but the crew members were missing.

The boat had been expected to arrive in Lahad Datu town on the same day it was found.

No other details were made available by the Malaysian authorities not even the names of the sailors, but the disappearance of the Malaysian sailors came two weeks after Abu Sayyaf militants kidnapped 3 Indonesian crew members of a Malaysian trawler in the area. The hostages were believed taken to Tawi-Tawi province.

The Abu Sayyaf also seized 7 other Indonesian tugboat crewmen on June 22 in the Sulu Sea near the Philippines border.

The sailors have been identified as Ferry Arifin, the tugboat skipper; M. Mahbrur Dahri, Edi Suryono, Ismail, M.Nasir, M.Sofyan and Robin Piter.

The boat – owned by PT Rusianto Brothers – was heading to Samarinda in East Kalimantan following a trip from the Philippines when gunmen on speedboats intercepted it.

Indonesian media reported that the boat captain phoned his wife and told her that they were intercepted at sea by gunmen, who introduced themselves as Abu Sayyaf and were demanding 20 million ringgits for their safe release.

The Abu Sayyaf previously kidnapped 14 Indonesian tugboat crew members in separate attacks at sea off Sabah and brought them to Sulu province and eventually released through the intercession of the Moro National Liberation Front.

The militant group already beheaded a Malaysian man and two Canadian hostages in Sulu after their family failed to pay ransom money. (Mindanao Examiner)