THE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has arrested two suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf Group involved in various kidnapping incidents in Mindanao, it said in a statement yesterday.
State agents arrested Abdulla D. Addi and Aluyudan Ismael Guru in separate operations based on a warrant for kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
Addi, who was arrested last month in Zamboanga City, was allegedly involved in the kidnapping in Patikul, Sulu in 2002, when two victims were beheaded.
He was also allegedly part of the abduction of 21 hostages at a resort in Malaysia in 2000. The hostages were later brought to the group’s base in Jolo, Sulu in southern Philippines. Addi is also being blamed for the abduction of three Indonesian sailors in 2002.
Meanwhile, Guru was arrested on Aug. 15 in Pasay City where he lived. He was said to be recognized as a guard by one of the victims of the Golden Harvest Plantation kidnapping in 2001.
NBI said he was involved in the Marawi Siege in 2017 and was tapped to help the “largely ethnic Yakan group” of former Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon enter Marawi City.
Abu Sayyaf has used terror for profit and to promote its jihadist agenda, according to the US National Counterterrorism Center. It also engages in kidnappings for ransom, bombings, assassinations and extortions, it said. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
