Cops foil kidnap try in Sulu - report
MANILA, Philippines – Four people, including two minors, escaped a kidnapping attempt in Sulu province after local authorities responded, a radio report said Tuesday.
Senior Superintendent Julasrim Kasim, Sulu provincial police director, initially identified the four victims as Tahil Saraji, 25; Jarang Jalil, 35; his 15-year-old daughter; and an 11-year-old boy.
The four are residents of Kulasi village in Maimbung town, a fifth class municipality in Sulu with 24,982 people in 3,920 households.
Initial investigation showed that Jalil was driving his passenger jeepney, which was carrying an undetermined number of passengers, when two armed men struck.
The suspects stopped the jeepney and commanded all the passengers, except for the four victims, to alight the vehicle.
The two suspects, initially identified as one Gadjer Adjurani and alias Gapang, brought the victims to neighboring Talipao town, a third class municipality.
After being alerted by the passengers who were asked to alight the jeepney, a police team was immediately dispatched to rescue the victims.
The responding lawmen spotted the suspects in Kanlibot village and fired warning shots. The two suspects scurried away and abandoned their four victims.
Police recovered from the area an M1 Garande rifle, the radio report added.
Investigators confirmed that the two suspected kidnappers are members of kidnap-for-ransom group operating in Sulu.
The foiled kidnap attempt came on the heels of the abduction of veteran journalist Cecilia Victoria Oreña Drilon, her news team, and a professor last month in Sulu’s Maimbung town.
In the last few weeks, alleged Abu Sayyaf bandits held hostage four electric cooperative employees, two Globe Telecom subcontractors, and three other civilians in Sulu’s neighboring province of Basilan.
All nine victims have already been released. - GMANews.TV