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MANILA, Philippines: Muslim activists released three Indonesians kidnapped at sea early last year off the coast of Malaysia and then took them to their hiding places in the southern jungle of the Philippines, officials said Sunday.
Indonesians were released on Friday with the help of the Moro National Liberation Front, a rebel group that signed a peace deal with the Philippine government in the Indonesian city of Sulu province, police said.
The released hostages, Hamdam Salim, Subandi Sattuh and Sudarlan Samansung, were to be handed over to the Indonesian ambassador in the south of Zamboanga City later Sunday, the army said.
On a speedboat cruise, the three men were taken away last January by suspected Abu Sayyaf militants off the state of Sabah, Malaysia. The hostages were transported aboard motorboats to the hiding place of gunmen in Sulu, a poor and predominantly Muslim province in the southern Philippines, where Abu Sayyaf has been present since the late 1980s, officials said. of security.
An Abu Sayyaf commander, Marjan Sahidjuan, who uses the war name Apo Mike, led the kidnappers who released the prisoners in exchange for ransom, a security official said on condition of anonymity. .
Regional military spokesman, Lt. Col. Gerry Besana, said the army was unaware of any ransom payments and added that relentless offensives were pushing the kidnappers to drop their hostages.
Efforts by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia to strengthen the maritime boundary have significantly reduced piracy and kidnapping in recent months, mainly by the Abu Sayyaf, a US blacklisted terrorist organization and the United States. Philippines.
Philippine police, however, said the two Indonesian captains of a Malaysian fishing vessel were kidnapped off the Semporna Islands in Sabah, Malaysia, on Tuesday, and were taken by suspected militants armed with M-16 rifles to the southern Philippines. .
The Philippine army said that she was trying to confirm the reported abduction.
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