[FMT] A notorious Abu Sayyaf sub-leader, reported to have been killed during a gun battle with police in Sabah, last month, is apparently still alive. He is reported to have given himself up to the Philippine authorities yesterday.On March 1, a Malaysian newspaper had identified a man, who was killed along with two other Filipino terror suspects, as the highly-wanted Nurhassan Jamiri. The newspaper said that Nurhassan was gunned down with the two accomplices at a plantation in Tawau on February 27. The identities of those three men have yet to be announced by officials, whose investigation also involves Interpol as well as security agencies from the Philippines and Indonesia.
The newspaper's report had then irked the Eastern Sabah Security Command, whose chief said the media should clear such reports before publishing as it had not been confirmed.
Philippine media sources yesterday reported that Nurhassan and 13 of his followers surrendered with their firearms in a remote village in Basilan province in Mindanao.
Nurhassan, who had remained off of the authorities’ radar for the last seven years, was suspected to have been involved in the bus bombing at the Makati financial hub of Manila that killed five passengers in 2011. He was also the reported captor of Warren Rodwell, an Australian who was held by the Abu Sayyaf for 472 days in Basilan in 2011.
It was also reported that Nurhassan led a notorious Abu Sayyaf sub-group consisting of slain bomb expert Mussana Jamiri, his cousin, in Basilan.