Sayyaf member tagged in Lamitan siege falls

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Police intelligence operatives captured an Abu Sayyaf member, tagged in the Lamitan siege and spate of kidnappings, during an operation on an island off Basilan last week, authorities said.

Chief Superintendent Angelo Sunglao, Region 9 police director, said the suspect, Jul Wahid, who used the aliases of Jul, Wahid, Idris, Tahsin, Kumay and Pekok, was listed in the joint order of battle of the Department of National Defense and Department of the Interior and Local Government with a bounty of P350,000.

Wahid, according to Sunglao, was apprehended last Wednesday in Barangay Mananggal, Pilas Island in Hadji Mutamad, Basilan by elements of the Regional Intelligence Division on the strength of an arrest warrant issued by Judge Danilo Bucoy for kidnapping and illegal serious detention for the June 2001 Lamitan siege.

Sunglao said Wahid was one of the first recruits of the Abu Sayyaf under its founder, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani.

He said Wahid was involved in the encounter between policemen led by Chief Inspector Reynaldo Romo and Abu Sayyaf bandits led by Janjalani on Dec. 18, 1998 in Barangay Tumakid, Lamitan town.

Romo and Janjalani were killed in the clash.

Sunglao said Wahid will be turned over to the court for proper disposition.