A senior leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) said yesterday he received information the 10 Indonesian sailors kidnapped on March 26 by the Islamic State (IS)-sympathizer Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) are being kept in Kalinggalang-Caluang municipality of Sulu.
The source, who is a native of Sulu but currently lives in Zamboanga City, said he has contact with some relatives of ASG sub-leaders but declined to be identified in print.
He said he also gets his information from sources in the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), particularly at Edward Andrews Air Force Base in the city.
Based on the information he received, the MNLF leader, who declined to be named, identified the ASG sub-group under Alhabsi Misaya and Uddon Hassim as the ones behind the abduction of the Indonesian sailors.
He said Misaya and Hassim were “monitored with 15 armed men and 10 Indonesian kidnapping victims (KVs)… landed at shoreline of Barangay Kambing, Kalinggalang-Caluang municipality, Sulu, early morning of March 27 on board a speed boat gray (in) color powered by three outboard engines.”
The MNLF leader, citing his sources, said the ASG gunmen and their KVs came from Languyan, Tawi-Tawi, where they snatched their hostages in the early morning of March 26 (Saturday).
“Presently, abductors and KVs are hiding in the vicinity of Barangay Masjid Punjungan Kiram, still in Kalinggalang-Caluang, under the care of ASG members Sahirul Sahiyal and Taib Lukman, both of Alhabsi Misaya group,” he said in a text message.
Earlier news reports from Indonesian online media outlets said the Indonesian sailors were on board two boats sailing from Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, en route to Batangas, Philippines, to deliver a cargo of coal.
But on March 26, gunmen later identified as Moros from Sulu intercepted and boarded their boats in Tawi-Tawi waters, seized them and took the crew members captives.
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