Abu Sayyaf leader arrested in Basilan

In Zamboanga City the Security forces arrested an alleged Abu Sayyaf sub-leader wanted by the authorities for kidnappings and murder for the past two decades.

Regional police spokesman Police Inspector Dahlan Samuddin, said that Nasser Usman was recently nabbed by the combined police and the military troops in Basilan, Lamitan City.

He also said that Usman was tracked down by the authorities in his hideout in the Tandung Ahas village. The official did not say if weapons or explosives were seized from the suspect’s hideout.

The said warrant of arrest issued by Judge Bucoy of RTC Branch 2 Isabela City for four (4) counts of kidnapping and with serious illegal detention in connection with the Lamitan siege last June 2001, according to Samuddin, Usman, who heads Abu Sayyaf’s Islamic Propagation and Indoctrination under the leadership of Ustadz Janjalani that was also involved in 1995 siege in the Sibugay’s capital town of Ipil Zamboanga and the abduction of several teachers and students from two schools in the Barangay Tumahubong Basilan’s Sumisip March 20, 2000.

Samuddin said that the militant leader now is being interrogated by police and the security forces will continue to hunt down other Abu Sayyaf members which recently pledged allegiance with the Sunni jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.