Police have arrested two Abu Sayyaf members, one of them tagged as a bomb-making expert, authorities said. Police, acting on a tip-off, raided a house in Barangay Baliwasan in the city's outskirts and arrested Abu Sayyaf member Nassid Tajid, who put up no resistance, said Western Area Police Command director Vidal Querol. He said Tajid is a suspect in the 1999 abductions of Fr. Roel Gallardo and several students from a Catholic school in Basilan. The priest and several other students and teachers were later killed when the military staged a rescue attempt. Querol said Tajid, 26, alias Rudimar Taji, is a bomb-making expert who worked under Jainal Antel Sali alias Abu Solaiman, who heads the Abu Sayyaf's Urban Terrorist Group. With Tajid's arrest, Querol said they could have foiled bombing plots by the Abu Sayyaf in this port city.
A second Abu Sayyaf member, Jubail Sahibul, was arrested in a Zamboanga suburb last week, military spokesman Col. Domingo Tutaan said. Sahibul took part in the kidnapping of 21 Western tourists and Asian staffers on the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan in April 2000, Tutaan said. The hostages were taken by boat across the sea border to Sulu and ransomed off for millions of dollars.