ZAMBOANGA CITY, 6 September 2003 — Suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels snatched a dentist and his nephew Friday in Jolo island in the southern Philippines, police said.
Police said Dr. Romeo Lao, 56, and Amor Rubio, 16, were seized around 5.30 a.m. in downtown Jolo by three gunmen, believed to be members of the rebel group tied to Al-Qaeda global terror network.
“We have alerted police forces in Jolo and there is an ongoing effort to recover the victims,” said Chief Supt. Acmad Omar, commander of police forces in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.
Omar said the victims were on their way to a family bakery along Scott Rd. when gunmen blocked their path and seized them. ‘We suspect the Abu Sayyaf as behind the kidnapping because nobody else would dare to do this but the rebels,” he told reporters.
He said no ransom demand had been made so far. Police set up roadblocks and checkpoints in several towns where the rebels are known to operate, Omar said.
In General Santos City in mainland Mindanao, troops arrested four suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels in separate raids, the military said.
The rebels were followers of Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and his lieutenant Radulan Sahiron and have been implicated by the military to the kidnappings of 3 Indonesian tugbolat crewmembers and four Christian preachers last year in Jolo island.
There were no reports about Janjalani, who were earlier said to be hiding in caves in Sultan Kudarat province.
Security forces in Mindanao instensified their hunt for the Abu Sayyaf rebels, blamed by authorities for the spate of terrorism and kidnappings-for-ransom in the south. The group was also linked to the abduction of foreigners over the past years and has been included in the US list of foreign terorist organization.
