ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 14, 2012) – Philippine authorities were verifying reports that a kidnapped Indian national was executed by the Abu Sayyaf on the southern province of Sulu where the militant group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya is still holding a Japanese and a Malaysian hostages.
Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra, the Sulu provincial police chief, said Biju Kolara Veetil, 36, was reported to have been killed by his captors for a still unknown reason despite ransoms paid to the Abu Sayyaf by his Filipina wife.
“We have intelligence reports about this but need to get a confirmation from his wife or find his body,” Freyra told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said Veetil’s wife, Elena Asanji, would not speak to the police about the fate of the foreign. “She and family would not speak to us and the last information we got was that the woman is no longer in Sulu,” he said.
Veetil and his wife were visiting the woman’s family in the village of Tempok in Patikul town when four gunmen seized the foreigner in June last year.
Freyra said the woman’s family had paid at least P800,000 to the Abu Sayyaf for Veetil’s safe release, but the militants did not free the foreigner.
He said a Malaysian gecko trader – Mohammad Nasaruddin Bensaidin – who was also kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf in April last year, had been released after a local negotiator paid ransom to the gang.
The kidnappers had originally demanded P5 million ransoms for his safe release.
The 38-year old Malaysian arrived in Sulu in April last year from Kuala Lumpur and had been living in a house in the village of Kajatian in Indanan town when he was kidnapped.
“We are trying to locate the negotiator and get details of the release of Mohammad, but we can’t trace him anymore,” Freyra said.
He said another Japanese hostage, Katayama Mamaito, 63, is still being held by the Abu Sayyaf. Mamaito, a treasure hunter, was kidnapped in June 2010 on the island-town of Pangutaran in Sulu.
“He is still alive and being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf,” he said.
Aside from the Japanese, the Abu Sayyaf is also holding two fishermen, Renato Panisales and Wennie Ferrer – all employees of the Mega Fishing Corporation in Zamboanga City – after they were seized at sea off Sulu in March last year. Their companion, Jonald Ocsimar, was freed in July after his family paid P300,000 ransom.
Another faction of the Abu Sayyaf is still holding an Australian national, Warren Rodwell, 52, in the Muslim province of Basilan, after he was kidnapped in December last year from his seaside home in Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay province.
The kidnappers demanded $2 million ransoms in exchange for his freedom, but his Filipino wife, Miraflor Gutang, 27, said they cannot afford to pay. Rodwell’s fate remains unknown.
In 2009, Abu Sayyaf gunmen also kidnapped three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross – a Swiss, Italian and Filipino – who were inspecting humanitarian projects in Patikul town. They rejected offers by the military and police to provide them with security when gunmen seized them. They were also freed after huge ransoms were reportedly paid to the militants. (Mindanao Examiner)
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