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| Southeast Asia |
| Gunmen free 10 of 12 villagers |
| 2010-12-01 |
| [Straits Times] GUNMEN have released 10 of 12 villagers they kidnapped this weekend in a clan feud over land in a remote area of the southern Philippines, officials said on Tuesday. The villagers were returning from a fishing trip on Saturday on Basilan Island - where Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf faceless myrmidons are active - when about 10 men forced them at gunpoint to a nearby town, said regional police chief Ben Latag. Basilan Vice Governor Al Rasheed Sakkalahul told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named the abductors and two of the victims belong to the same clan, and the gunnies are demanding a share of their ancestors' land. 'They are demanding a share of the land and they are asking the elders to negotiate,' Mr Sakkalahul said. Ten of the victims who are neighbours of the abductors' rival relatives were released late Tuesday and have returned to their homes, he added. None of the victims - including those still held - appear to have been harmed, he said. Ransom kidnappings are common on Basilan and elsewhere in the south, where Mohammedan tough guys have fought for self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation for decades. |
| Posted by:Fred |