A Muslim teacher was seized Wednesday by Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippine town of Patikul.Officials said Alrashid Jahang was traveling on a motorcycle when intercepted by Abu Sayyaf gunmen led by Aljini Mundoc alias Ninok Sapari. Jahang, who teaches at a local elementary school, was heading to Jolo town when taken by the militants.
Mundoc was also linked to the kidnapping last year of two Muslim sisters Linda and Nadjoua Bansil, both filmmakers, in Patikul town. The sisters were with members of the Sulu Sultanate when Mundoc seized the pair while doing a documentary about Muslim coffee farmers in the area. He was also implicated in the 2012 kidnapping of a health worker in Patikul town.
Recently, police said suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen wearing white robes or kandura seized three students of a private school and their family driver in the town of Jolo. Police said the victims -- two children and a teenager -- were in a car on their way to school when a jeep used by the gunmen blocked their path and forcibly took them.