ZAMBOANGA CITY, 19 October — Gunmen who abducted an Italian priest in Mindanao were part of a gang that killed an Irish priest in a botched kidnap attempt last month, the military said yesterday.

Fr. Giuseppe Pierantoni, a missionary in his mid-40s, was seized in Dimataling town, of Zamboanga del Sur province, 850 kilometers (530 miles) southwest of Manila, on Wednesday by bandits who prey on Roman Catholic priests, officials said.

"There are pursuit operations going on and we will recover the priest safely," said Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, armed forces chief in Mindanao.

Pierantoni’s kidnappers are also suspected of killing the Rev. Rufus Halley, 57, in late September near Malabang town, of Lanao del Sur province.

Witnesses to that murder said the attackers initially tried to kidnap him but then shot him when he tried to escape.

The military initially blamed Pierantoni’s kidnapping on the Abu Sayyaf, a Moro extremist rebel group holding American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham and 10 Filipinos hostage on the remote southern island of Basilan.

But Cimatu said new evidence points toward followers of Akiddnin Abdusalam, a reputed kidnap gang head arrested in connection with Halley’s shooting.

Cimatu said Abdusalam is also wanted in connection with the 1998 kidnapping of another Italian missionary, Luciano Benedetti. Benedetti was released after an apparent ransom payment.

Military officials initially said Abdusalam himself was likely behind the latest kidnapping. However, soldiers arrested Abdusalam Wednesday around noon, hours before the kidnapping.

Diversionary tactic

Cimatu said the abduction of Pierantoni could have been pulled off by the Abdusalam’s "Pentagon" group to ease the pressure on the Abu Sayyaf. "The Abu Sayyaf is feeling the pressure of (ongoing military operations), so it could have asked this group to conduct a diversionary move," Cimatu said.

Abu Hamsa, "Pentagon" spokesman, had earlier claimed that his group had ties to the Abu Sayyaf bandit group.

Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, denied that members of his group were behind the Italian priest’s abduction. "There is no ‘lost command’ in the MILF. We also do not have members who bear those names," he said.

The MILF said it would help in securing the release of Pierantoni. Kabalu said this was not the first time that the rebel group was involved in freeing hostages.

In 1999, the MILF facilitated the release of Italian missionary Luciano Benidetti, who was kidnapped in November 1998.

"We will do our share as part of confidence-building measures and to clear our organization from allegations we had a hand in this latest crime," Kabalu told the Inquirer.

Father Pierantoni’s abductors had also wanted to seize a Polish priest, according Col. Jet Belarmino, commanding officer of the army’s 51st Infantry Battalion.

But the kidnap group missed Fr. Janusz Burzawa, parish priest of Dimataling town, by just a few minutes, Belarmino said. Citing accounts of witnesses, he said Burzawa went to Pagadian City Wednesday and arrived back here a few minutes after Pierantoni was abducted.

Pierantoni, a native of Bologna, Italy, was in a convent when he was abducted.