Troops nab Sayyaf spy

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Combined Marines and intelligence operatives captured an Abu Sayyaf member who was believed to be spying on government troop movements in Patikul, Sulu, a military official reported yesterday.

Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Roy Kyamko said Junaini Ahmad, 31, a henchman of Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron, was captured on Tuesday in Barangay Bon-Bon, Patikul by the joint operatives of the 3rd Marine Brigade and Military Intelligence Company (MICO).

The military said he is presently undergoing tactical interrogation.

Ahmad’s arrest came after two other Abu Sayyaf members, one of them a sub-leader, were captured separately in Jolo island last week. These were commander Kalaw Jaljalis and Muktar Sariasa.

Kyamko said Ahmad was positively identified by a military spotter as an active member of the Abu Sayyaf group under Sahiron.

Ahmad was also tagged as among the Abu Sayyaf behind the abduction and beheading of two soldiers sometime in 2001 in Sitio Usaw, Barangay Timpook in Patikul while government troops were searching for American Jeffrey Craig Schilling.

Schilling was taken captive by the Abu Sayyaf after he visited the bandit’s lair in Patikul sometime in August 2000. He was rescued eight months later.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, chief of the Task Force Comet, the military unit running after the Abu Sayyaf, said the bandits and their leaders are trying to slip out of Patikul jungle to escape pursuing soldiers. - Roel Pareño