ZAMBOANGA CITY, 4 March 2004 — Security forces have captured three Abu Sayyaf members implicated in a recent attack in the remote southern province of Tawi-Tawi, police said yesterday. Tawi-Tawi police chief Superintendent Esa Hasan said the trio were captured Tuesday afternoon following a firefight with soldiers and policemen in the village of Tubig Gata in Panglima Sugala town.
“We have three of the suspects in our custody and we will file criminal charges aagainst them for the killing of Rodrigo Alejandro,” Hasan told Arab News.
Hasan said the trio were the main suspects in the killing of Rodrigo Alejandro in the town’s Buan village on Sunday.
The seven gunmen were reported to have barged into the house of Alejandro and killed him and then kidnapped his wife and a son.
Hasan said the duo are now in their custody and that Alejandro’s wife Carmen would file criminal charges against the suspects.
But other reports said four more hostages, who were taken in the village and used as shield, had also been rescued by soldiers late Tuesday.
The military blamed the group of Abu Sayyaf leader Jannal Usman as behind the attack. It said the attackers, who are all followers of local Abu Sayyaf leader Jannal Usman, also carted away three automatic rifles owned by Alejandro.
