MANILA: Two infamous militants from the Abu Sayyaf Group, together with the executioner of Canadian hostages, have been detained on Friday after surrendering to the Philippine safety forces, the army stated.
Ben Quirino, alias Ben Tattoo, 41, and his brother Almujer Yadah, 55, have been sub-leaders of the militant outfit that operates within the nation’s south, and has gained notoriety for extortion, assassinations and kidnappings for ransom.
Each males have been linked to a number of killings, together with of two Canadian nationals who have been kidnapped from an upscale resort on Samal island in 2015 and brought captive to the group’s stronghold in Jolo, Sulu province.
The Canadians have been killed in 2016 after a $6.4 million ransom was not paid. Tattoo filmed himself beheading the captives.
He was additionally concerned within the kidnapping of Arab Information Asia bureau chief Baker Atyani in 2012.
Atyani, who was working for Al-Arabiya Information Channel on the time, was held captive by ASG for 18 months.
Yadah was answerable for ASG’s logistics and meals provides.
“We contemplate these two as essentially the most infamous ASG leaders to have surrendered contemplating the variety of circumstances which were filed in opposition to them — from kidnapping for ransom, homicide and lots of extra,” Maj. Gen. Ignatius Patrimonio, commander of the eleventh Infantry Division designated to struggle militancy in Sulu, advised Arab Information.
“They received uninterested in working from pursuing army forces. In addition to, they now not have the help of the native populace; their group has been badly decimated and their brothers killed.”
Fashioned in 1991, ASG emerged as a splinter group of the Moro Nationwide Liberation Entrance, a motion looking for autonomy for Filipino Muslims within the south of the nation. It was initially influenced by Al-Qaeda, however because the early 2000s has been concerned primarily in felony exercise. In 2014, a few of its factions pledged allegiance to Daesh.
ASG’s power has been declining since 2018 when the Philippine army stepped up a crackdown on Daesh associates. Knowledge from the eleventh Infantry Division exhibits that the variety of energetic militants within the group has fallen from about 300 in 2019 to an estimated 100.
Brig. Gen. Benjamin Batara Jr., commander of the 1103rd Infantry Brigade, which has jurisdiction over Tattoo and Yadah’s hometown of Patikul, advised Arab Information the army has been monitoring the pair since final yr, with the assistance of police, intelligence and native governments.
“However the important thing to how we have been capable of attain out to them was their households and group leaders,” he stated. “Apparently, they have been already below strain due to steady army and police operations, and a collection of surrenders of their fellow Abu Sayyaf members.”
Yadah was the primary to give up and satisfied Tattoo to observe go well with, Batara stated. The army handed the pair over to police on Friday, as each are going through a collection of felony costs.
A complete of 67 Abu Sayyaf members in Sulu have surrendered to safety forces in Jolo thus far this yr.
