ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 6, 2014) – Police on Wednesday said Abu Sayyaf rebels have freed a Muslim teacher they abducted in the southern Philippine town of Patikul.
Police chief Abraham Orbita said Alrashid Jahang was released at Sitio Baunuh in Liang village also in Patikul town.
“The victim was immediately brought to the Schools Division Office after his release. He is reunited with family now,” Orbita told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Jahang was travelling on a motorcycle in the village of Taglibi when Abu Sayyaf gunmen led by Aljini Mundoc alias Ninok Sapari flagged him down and eventually seized.
Jahang, who teaches at the Taglibi Elementary School, was heading to Jolo town when taken by the rebels.
Mundoc was also linked to the kidnapping last year of two Muslim sisters Linda and Nadjoua Bansil – who are both filmmakers – in Patikul town. The sisters were with members of the Sulu Sultanate when Mundoc seized the duo while doing a documentary of Muslim coffee farmers in the area.
Sapari was implicated too to the 2012 kidnapping of a health worker Rosalyn Kiram, 54, also in Patikul town. There was no immediate statement from the town mayor Kabir Hayudini about the series of kidnappings in his area.
Authorities have blamed the Abu Sayyaf for the spate of ransom kidnappings in the area.(Mindanao Examiner)
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