JAKARTA — The militant Abu Sayyaf group has released a Malaysian tugboat it seized two weeks ago, said Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday, but it has not yet freed the vessel’s four Malaysian crew members.
The ministry said in a statement yesterday that the MV Massive 6 boat departed from Tawau in Sabah, Malaysia, to Samarinda in East Kalimantan on Tuesday. “Until now, the whereabouts of the four Malaysians remain unknown,” said the ministry.
The seizure of the four sailors on April 1 by eight armed men near Ligitan, a small island off the eastern coast of Sabah, was the latest in a series of kidnappings in the lawless waters and coastlines of the southern Philippines in the past year.
They were part of a nine-member crew on a tugboat carrying 7,500 tonnes of coal travelling from Manila to Malaysia. The kidnappers released the other five crew, comprising Indonesians and Myanmarese.
The Malaysian government is reportedly contemplating suspending trade and the movement of essential goods from the east coast of Sabah to the southern Philippines.
More than 18 foreign citizens are being held in the southern Philippines by kidnap-for-ransom groups pledging allegiance to Islamic State (IS), said the Philippine military.
Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said yesterday that the ship’s owner, Highline Shipping Sdn Bhd, has replaced the four Malaysian crew members with Indonesians.
It said the Indonesian consulate in Tawau accompanied the four Indonesians when they signed their contracts to ensure their welfare were taken care of.
http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/abu-sayyaf-group-releases-tugboat-not-its-kidnapped-msian-crew
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