Troops guard Basilan island where security forces are tracking down members of the Abu Sayyaf group. (Zamboanga Journal)ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 17 Jun) Authorities have detained man on suspicion he is a member of the Filipino terrorist Abu Sayyaf group tied to al-Qaeda in the southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga.
The military said it is holding Basit Usman after three people identified him as part of an Abu Sayyaf band which kidnapped and killed 10 farmers at a coconut plantation in Lamitan town in Basilan island in June 2001.
"We are investigating his role in the kidnappings and killings in Basilan. He is still being interrogated," Air Force Captain Jose Ritche Pabilonia, a spokesman for the Southern Command, told the Zamboanga Journal.
He said Usman was allegedly involved in the Abu Sayyaf raid on Golden Harvest plantation in the village of Tairan in Lantawan town in June 2001 where the gang torched 10 houses and a Catholic church and beheaded two of 15 men they abducted and made the others slaves and raped the women until rescued by the military in separate clashes three months later.
Usman was nabbed on Thursday near a public market by a combined police and military intelligence agents, but security officials did not say if there were weapons seized from him or whether he was planning an attack in Zamboanga City, which had been bombed in the past by the Abu Sayyaf.
Officials gave no details about Usman's arrest, but military sources said the man is being interrogated at the Philippine Air Force base here.
Last year, seven arrested members of the Abu Sayyaf group -- Ibrahim Bowak, Muddas Sabinul, Abdulla Uwa, Daud Indaling, Etang Awal, Jimmy Teng and Janital Wahid -- involved in kidnapping of farmers in Balobo village in Lamitan town were sentenced to death in Basilan island.
The military said the terrorists, disguised as government soldiers, swooped down on the village after raiding the Golden Harvest plantation and snatched about three dozen people, including women and children, and then beheaded nine farmers and shot another hostage before they escaped. The remaining hostages were either rescued by soldiers or escaped.
Intelligence agents on Wednesday also captured in Basilan island a suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorist Gudairi Mohamad alias Garing Mohamad, who was linked to the 2000 kidnapping of 21 mostly Asian and European holiday-makers in Malaysia's resort island of Sipadan.
Mohamad, a follower of Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani, is also being investigated if he was involved in the kidnapping of Californian man Guillermo Sobero and Kansas missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, who were seized along with 17 Filipinos, from the posh Dos Palmas resort in the central Filipino island of Palawan in 2001.
The Abu Sayyaf was also implicated in the kidnapping of 21 mostly Asian and European holiday-makers from the Malaysian island resort of Sipadan in April 2000. Many of the hostages later were freed after Libyan and Malaysian negotiators paid an estimated $11 million ransom.
The United States listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization after Manila implicated five of the group’s known leaders to the killing of Californian Guillermo Sobero in 2001 and Kansas missionary Martin Burnham in 2002.
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