Some say that the 34-year-old Sabahan has escaped a Philippine security forces cordon in Marawi City. Some say his body is among 40 bodies burnt beyond recognition which were found in a mosque in Marawi City.
The nearly five-month-long Islamic State siege of Marawi City in southern Philippines is over. Two Malaysians – former Universiti Malaya lecturer Dr Mahmud Ahmad and former Selayang Municipal Council officer Muhammad Joraimee Awang Raimee @ Abu Nur – have been killed in the battle to turn Marawi City into an IS caliphate.
The fates of three Malaysians – Amin Baco @ Abu Jihad, Jeknal Adil @ Jek and Abu Hizab – are unknown.
“Jeknal is not known here. Intel operatives do not know him,” an intelligence source told me.
Here’s who Amin Baco and Jeknal are, according to a July report by Indonesia-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC).
Jeknal Adil, held from 2006 to 2009 under Malaysia’s Internal Security Act on suspicion of links to the Sabah Darul Islam network, was first reported to be in Basilan in 2012. Born in Tawau to Tausug parents, he apparently never had full Malaysian nationality but instead had permanent residency status.
Amin Baco, a Malaysian national from Tawau, of Bugis descent, is married into a prominent Abu Sayyaf Group family on Jolo island in the Sulu province. (His father-in-law is Hatib Sawadjaan, head of an ASG faction known as the Tanum Group.)
On Nov 14, 2012, the two teamed up to kidnap cousins Tung Wee Jie and Tung Wee Wei, from their birds’ nest farm in Tambisan, Lahad Datu, Sabah. Wee Wei died in captivity while Wee Jie escaped.
To get an understanding of who Amin Baco and Jeknal are, I contacted Baker Atyani, a Jordanian journalist held hostage for 18 months by the Abu Sayyaf from June 12, 2012. He had encountered them while he was in captivity on Jolo island.
Baker met Amin Baco when he was in captivity as the Sabahan knew English and he was asked to talk to him. He found out the gunman’s name is Jihad and that he is a Malaysian.
“He had a dispute with Hajan in my first week of captivity and he left the Hajan community to go either to Cotabato City or Basilan,” said Baker when I met him in Kuala Lumpur in October last year shooting a video documentary, Undercover Asia: Kidnapped – Abu Sayyaf.(Baker knows Amin Baco’s father-in-law as Hajan, whereas the IPAC report names him as Hatib.)
“When I was freed, I read that there is a Malaysian married to the daughter of Hatib and then I knew that Amin Baco is Jihad.”
“What’s your impression of Amin Baco?” I asked Baker.
“He speaks quite good English. Looks like he’s got a strong personality – he has his own mind. Probably that is why he had differences with his father-in-law. He used to be their guru in that Hajan community,” he said.
Baker said he knew Jeknal as Ahmad and he was close to him as he taught him Arabic.
“Every day he would visit me for two hours for me to teach him Arabic,” he said.
Jeknal wanted to learn Arabic as he knew the basics of the language.
“He was a good student as he really wanted to learn. It was clear he had passion for the language,” Baker said.
“Later, he told me about his story – that he was from Sabah and he was jailed for three years in Malaysia for a crime he said he never committed.”
According to Jeknal, he was close to Darul Islam Sabah and he was accused of a murder in which he was not involved.
Jeknal was a very quiet and simple man.
“He had to be with the community because he had no choice – I felt – but he was not part of them. He stayed as a stranger among Hajan’s community. He also left that community and probably went to Basilan,” Baker said.
Nothing much is known of the Malaysian militant going by the nom de guerre Abu Hizab. He was not on the security forces’ radar in the Philippines and Malaysia until the Marawi siege five months ago.
“We don’t know when he entered the Philippines. He has been with Dr Mahmud’s group. But he is not a key figure in IS although he was involved in militancy,” said a source.
“The three Malaysians – whether dead or alive – are still at large in the Philippines,” he said. “Security forces will get them soon.”
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