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Commander Robot's henchman nabbed
Police and military forces on Saturday captured in the island of Basilan a suspected Abu Sayyaf member, whose group is tied to the al-Qaeda terror network.Officials said Kahal Asmad alias Abu Asmad was nabbed by police and military agents near a market place in Isabela City. He was arrested alright, and Kahal Asmad is included in the militarys order of battle. He is facing a string of kidnapping charges, said Inspector Romeo Tiera of the local police force. Tiera said Asmad is a henchman of slain Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang, also known as Commander Robot, who was killed in a police assault last year at a prison facility in Taguig City. It was unknown if security forces seized weapons from Asmad or whether he was planning an attack, but police said he did not resist arrest when captured around 8:30 a.m. Asmads family disputed the charges and insisted the man was innocent. Authorities have tightened security in the south after the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency in northern Mindanao uncovered a supposed plot Friday by the Abu Sayyaf group to hijack passenger ships. We ordered a tightened security in all passenger ships in northern Mindanao. We have contingency measures and are ready to address any situation. We cannot rule out the possibility of a terror attack after the recent bombing in Jolo, said Chief Supt. Florante Baguio, commander of the regional police force. Baguio did not say how the plot was discovered, but a report by the NICA claimed the Abu Sayyaf was also planning to abduct the passengers. The report identified the leader of an 11-man Abu Sayyaf team that would carry out the hijacking as Abu Awillah, and that among the targets were Super Ferry vessels sailing from Manila to Mindanao. Police have stepped up intelligence operation to track down members of the terrorist group in the region, said Baguio. Authorities have tagged the Abu Sayyaf group in the February 2004 bombing of SuperFerry 14, which killed more than 100 people in the worst maritime terrorist attack in the Philippines. The 10,192-ton ship was sailing out of Manila, with about 900 passengers and crew, when a television set filled with TNT exploded. The Abu Sayyaf owned up the bombing. Since the bombing of the Super- Ferry 14, authorities have deployed secret marshals in passenger ships. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-04-02 |
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