Cotabato City, 4 August (AKI) - A Filipino Muslim cleric was detained over alleged links with the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization, police and military officials told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Friday. Senior Inspector Samson Obatay, the city's police spokesperson, confirmed that Hussain Abedin was a suspected member of the group Abu Sofia and was arrested at 7.00 pm at the terminal of Weena Buss Company in Cotabato City, in Mindanao, southern Philippines on Thursday. "He had existing arrest warrants and we have been looking for him," Obatay said.Known for its kidnapping and ransom activities, Abu Sofia often provides sanctuary to members of the militant Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf and both organisations have been involved in terrorism.
Obatay said Abedin's arrest came 10 days after three other suspected Abu Sofia bandits were nabbed while holding meetings with their recruits in the village of Bulalo, in Sultan Kudarat town, Mindanao. The three – named Alo, Talip and Manan and all surnamed Binago - were involved in the abduction of Korean Jae Kwon Yoon and his Filipino partner Belonio, in February 2004. Yoon and Belonio were snatched by heavily armed men in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat province, while surveying sites there for treasure hunting. The victims were released after relatives paid ransom.
Colonel Julieto Ando, the army's Sixth Infantry Division spokesperson, said that Abedin was also a renowned bomb-maker. "He is also involved in bomb making. The suspect was detained at a military prison facility located in Pedro Colina Hill," Ando told AKI.
However, the arrest of the cleric has upset local Muslim militant organizations that have staged protests. Amirah Lidasan, head of Suara Bangsamoro group, denounced Abedin's arrest, saying the victim is a Muslim cleric who belongs to United Youth Bangsamoro for Peace and Development, a non-government organization based in Maguindanao. "We demand his immediate release. We denounce the use of Uztads (religious teachers) as fall guys of [Filipino] President Arroyo's renewed campaign against Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah in Mindanao," Lidasan told AKI in a telephone interview.
Demanding the release of Abedin is also Eid Kabalu, spokesperson for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who confirmed that the cleric belongs to their organization. "But he is not a member of any Abu Sayyaf group or kidnap gangs. He was a victim of mistaken identity," Kabalu said. The MILF, which is engaged in peace talks with Manila, repeatedly denies links with Abu Sayyaf militants.
The Abu Sayyaf Group is a home grown terrorist organisation in the Philippines which in the early 1990s received financial support from the al-Qaeda terrorist network via Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, Saudi Arabian businessman Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, who at that time headed a network of Islamic charities and universities in Zamboanga City, Mindanao.
The group gained international notoriety with the kidnapping for ransom and murder of foreigners and Christian clerics. Since its inception the group has also carried out bombings, assassinations and extortion in its fight for an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao