Abu men seize 2 girls as brides; one escapes

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Despite a military assault on their forces on the southern island of Sulu, members of the extremist group Abu Sayyaf seized two girls, possibly as brides, early this week, police said.
Superintendent Candido Casimiro, Sulu police director, said two Abu Sayyaf bands separately seized the two girls – 18-year-old Pindayang Bustahan and 17-year-old Namra Ajahun – last Monday in the villages of Latik and Igasan.

Bustahan, a first-year college student of Zamboanga A.E. Colleges, escaped and summoned members of a military-police task force tracking down the Abu Sayyaf following a kidnapping spree.

Police captured Mason Misang, the alleged leader of the group that tried to kidnap Bustahan, and seized four firearms from his hideout, Casimiro said.

Bustahan was on semestral vacation. She was on her way home when Misang’s group snatched her.

Police are still searching for the group that took Ajahun, he added. The girl, along with a brother, was fetching water when five Abu Sayyaf members took her.

Casimiro said Abu Sayyaf members may have intended to kidnap the girls to force them into marriage, a common practice of the outlawed group.

He said they would not tolerate the latest abduction, warning that "whether it is a case for marriage or not, they cannot run away from the hands of the law."

Meanwhile, military operations continued across Sulu, leading to the killing of at least one rebel, the military and police said.

Maj. Rudolf Roderick Bunao, local military spokesman, said an Abu Sayyaf member was killed when he and four comrades clashed with government forces in the town of Talipao last Thursday.

The Abu Sayyaf group kidnapped dozens of foreign and local hostages in a rash of abductions that began in April. Most of the hostages were freed after ransom money was paid.

In September, the government launched a military assault to recover the remaining hostages. Three Malaysians, two Frenchmen and 12 Filipino Christian evangelists were freed, but American Jeffrey Schilling and Filipino dive master Roland Ullah are still in the hands of the outlaws. — Roel Pareño