ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 6, 2014) – A Muslim teacher was seized Wednesday by Abu Sayyaf rebels in the southern Philippine town of Patikul, officials said.
Officials said Alrashid Jahang was travelling on a motorcycle in the village of Taglibi when intercepted by Abu Sayyaf gunmen led by Aljini Mundoc alias Ninok Sapari.
Jahang, who teaches at the local 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.
Just recently, police said suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen clad in white robes or kandura have seized three students of a private school and their family driver in the town of Jolo.
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 and forcibly took them.
The mayor of Jolo, Hussin Amin, also did not give any statement about the latest abduction. Authorities have largely blamed Abu Sayyaf rebels for the spate of ransom kidnappings in the area.(Mindanao Examiner)
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