Kota Kinabalu: Three followers of an Abu Sayyaf sub-leader arrested in Beaufort last year have surrendered to the Philippine police in Sulu province.
The three were among four surrendered Abu Sayyaf members who were allegedly involved in kidnappings and other atrocities in Sulu.
Col. John Francis Encinareal, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group – Zamboanga Peninsula director, in a statement, said one of the four Abu Sayyaf surrenderers, Amjah Arah, 50, is on the Philippine government’s watch list for involvement in kidnappings and clashes against government troops in the town of Panamao, Sulu, though Arah claimed to be just an errand runner.
The other three Abu Sayyaf members who yielded with Arah on Sunday in Tanduh Bato village, Luuk district, were identified as Asali Maali, 47, Majing Aminulla, 37, and Aidil Sadidul, 45.
Encinareal said Arah, Aminulla and Sadidul were followers of Sansibar Bensio, an Abu Sayyaf sub-leader arrested along with another leader and six followers by police and elements of the Eastern Sabah Security Command in Beaufort in May of 2021.
Encinareal said Aminulla and Sadidul were also involved in kidnappings and other atrocities in Sulu.
Maali, on the other hand, was a follower of Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Abdugamar Abbang in Sulu.
Encinareal said the four Abu Sayyaf surrenderers were placed under the custody of the police’s Regional Intelligence Unit-9 for custodial debriefing.
Their surrender was facilitated by the police and National Intelligence and Coordinating Agency-9.
Bensio and the other seven Abu Sayyaf members were arrested with their family members in a squatter colony near Taman Arjuna in Beaufort, which Daily Express reported in an exclusive as the first ever Abu Sayyaf encampment in Sabah, made by a cell that had been in the state for over a decade.
Five other members of the group, including another sub-leader, were killed in a shootout with the police a week later at the same encampment.
Bensio and his seven Abu Sayyaf accomplices were on May 28 of last year deported to the southern Philippines.
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