Abu Sayyaf terrorists kidnap civilians in Sulu

From Gulf News Today (Nov 17): Abu Sayyaf terrorists kidnap civilians in Sulu

Members of the Daesh-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorists abducted six civilians, including two children on the island province of Sulu in restive Mindanao, which the military said would be used as “human shields” in the intensified operations against them.

Brigadier General Cirilo Sobejana, the Joint Task Force Sulu chief, said the terrorists took the six hostages at gunpoint during a raid on Tuesday night on their houses in a village in the town of Patikul, Sulu where the terrorists operate with impunity.

Sobejana suspected the terrorists would use the hostages as human shields as government forces intensified their operations against the Abu Sayyaf which has pledged allegiance to the Daesh extremists in the Middle East.

“The incident again showed the terrorists in Sulu are victimising even their fellow Tausugs and those who have less in life. Such hostility reminds us that security is everybody’s responsibility,” Sobejana said.

The latest abduction brought to 15 the total number of Filipinos held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf, including the four fishermen they had kidnapped off the town of Panguratan, also in Sulu on Oct.14, Sobejano said.

He added the terrorists are also holding as hostages five Indonesian sailors, a Vietnamese crew of a fishing boat and a Dutch national.

The Abu Sayyaf, meaning “bearer of the sword,” has gained notoriety through a spate of kidnap-for-ransom cases that were often marred by the beheading of their foreign and Filipino hostages.

Also in Mindanao, the government forces launched at dawn on Wednesday ground and air attacks against members another Daesh-linked terror group called the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) who were seen massing in the outskirts of the town of Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao.

Captain Arvin Encinas, an Army division spokesman, said the BIFF members are wanted for the burning of an 80-year-old Catholic chapel as well as the destruction of religious images including the statue of the patron saint San Isidro de Labrador in a village in Shariff Aguak.

“Such crime is most disturbing and provocative,” lamented Archbishop Cardinal Quevedo of Cotabato even as he expressed the hope the incident would not affect harmonious relationship between Muslims and Catholics in the area.

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