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Monday, March 07, 2005
Soldiers nab Sayyaf bandit, bus blast suspect
MANILA -- Troops have caught a suspected Muslim rebel allegedly involved in a series of kidnappings, including of three Americans, and another militant linked to the bombings of a bus and mall in Manila, the military said Sunday.
Rasidin Mohammad, a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group using the aliases Rasam, Rasa, and Rasim, was arrested Friday at the village of Arena Blanco in southern Zamboanga city, Army Major General Gabriel Habacon said.
Army Chief Generoso Senga said Mohammad is now under the custody of military officers in Zamboanga and is undergoing interrogation.
Mohammad is reportedly involved in a number of atrocities, including the kidnapping of 20 people from a resort in southwestern Palawan Province in May 2001, Habacon said.
Among those abducted were American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham from Wichita, Kansas and Californian Guillermo Sobero.
Most of the hostages later escaped, were rescued or ransomed. But Sobero was beheaded in captivity, while Martin Burnham was killed in crossfire during a rescue, which freed his wife.
A military report also said Mohammad was among the bandits who stormed and took control of a parish church and hospital in Lamitan town in Basilan in June 2001.
Mohammad was also involved in the 2001 kidnapping of 15 Golden Harvest plantation workers in Basilan. Two of the captives were beheaded, while the rest escaped or were rescued, Habacon said.
He was also accused of involvement in the raid on Barangay Balobo in Lamitan town in August 2001. The bandits took 35 hostages from the area and beheaded 10 of the hostages upon reaching a nearby village.
Abu Sayyaf has been loosely linked to al-Qaida and is on a US terror list. Although its ranks have been largely decimated by US-backed military assaults, the group remains a major security threat and has been blamed for the bombing of a ferry last year that left more than 100 dead, and bombings last month that killed eight in the capital and two southern cities.
Separately, military troops arrested Friday a suspect in the bombing of a passenger bus in Makati City that killed four people and injured more than 40 others in Pagalungan town in Maguindanao.
Rahib Buday, 49, a resident of Barangay Layog in Pagalungan town, was arrested inside his house at 11 p.m. Friday.
Major General Raul Relano, 6th Infantry Division commander, said Buday also figured in the May 21, 2000 bombing of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City, resulting in the death of one person and the wounding of 12 others.
Relano could not give details on the extent of Buday's participation in the Makati explosion as he said the Intelligence Service of the military merely informed him the suspect was involved in the attack.
Buday is the fourth bus bombing suspect to be arrested.
Prior to Buday's arrest, three men who claimed to be members of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf bandit group are in government custody for the Makati bombing. Among them is Gappal Bannah, alias Boy Negro, who surrendered last Thursday in Camarines Sur. He reportedly supplied the explosive used in the bombing.
The two other suspects were Gamal Baharan, alias Tapay, and Muslim convert Angelo Trinidad, alias Abu Khalil, who were arrested late last month by military and police operatives in San Juan and Mandaluyong City.
Authorities said Baharan and Trinidad planted the improvised explosives device on the ill-fated bus.
The two said when questioned that Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Solaiman ordered the attack. (JFF/AP)
(March 7, 2005 issue)
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Cebuana comes home in a coffin