Hunt on for 8 foreign terrorists

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Oct 12, 2020): Hunt on for 8 foreign terrorists (By: Tina G. Santos)

The military has intensified a manhunt for at least eight other foreign terrorists after the arrest of a young Indonesian widow who was allegedly planning another suicide bombing in Mindanao.

Gen. Gilbert Gapay, the military chief of staff, said the arrest of Resky Fantasya Rullie, alias Cici, 19, and two others on Saturday was a blow to terrorists in Mindanao.

Gapay had ordered troops to focus and further degrade terror groups, said Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, spokesperson for the AFP.



Gapay commended Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr., the Western Mindanao Command chief, and Brig. Gen. William Gonzales of Joint Task Force Sulu for the accomplishment but urged them to press the hunt for other foreign terrorists, including Indonesians and Egyptians, but did not identify them.

On the other hand, the Bureau of Immigration (BI), which was also involved in Saturday’s raid in Jolo, said they would file a deportation case against Cici but she would first have to face criminal charges and serve the sentence in the country before deportation.

“A deportation case has been recommended to be filed against Rullie for terrorism, being an illegal entrant, and for undesirability, apart from the criminal charges that she faces,” said BI Mindanao Intelligence Task Group head Melody Gonzales in a statement.

Under surveillance

“Cici was the subject of months of surveillance and was found to have been planning a suicide bombing in Sulu before the arrest,” Gonzales said, adding that Cici is a high-value target.

Authorities said Cici began to plan another bomb attack after her compatriot and husband Andi Baso was allegedly killed in a fight with security forces on Aug. 29. His body was not found.

Andi Baso was an ardent recruiter for the Abu Sayyaf in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The military had also claimed that, aside from Baso, key Abu Sayyaf leader and bomb maker Samir Nani was also killed in the Aug. 29 clash while another bomb maker Arsibar Sawadjaan, a nephew of Abu Sayyaf leader Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, was also killed on Sept. 28.

Cici, who was pregnant, was arrested by security forces before dawn on Friday along with locals Nur-Aina Alihasan and Fatima Sandra Jimlani-Jama at a house in Jolo, Sulu, that was believed to be owned by one Ben Quirino Yadah, alias Ben Tatoo, an Abu Sayaff subleader, according to Gonzales.

Alihasan, also known as Inda Nurhaina, is the wife of Ben Tatoo, while Jimlani is the wife of another Abu Sayyaf member, Jahid Jama.

Cici is believed to be the daughter of the Indonesian couple Rullie Rian Zeke and Ulfah Handayani Saleh, who blew themselves up during a Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Jan. 27, 2019, killing at least 18 people and injuring 82 others.

The Rullie family, which included two more children aside from Cici, were under the protection of Abu Sayyaf bomb maker Mundi Sawadjaan, who planned the twin bombings in Jolo on Aug. 24 that killed 15 people. Sawadjaan is also a nephew of the Abu Sayyaf leader.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1346456/hunt-on-for-8-foreign-terrorists