Philippines Muslim Cleric Hate
Muslim cleric nabbed for terror link
By FERNANDO M. CARIASO
People's Tonight
UNDERCOVER operatives in
Maguindanao arrested a Muslim cleric linked to a series of bomb attacks in
various places in the country, military officials said yesterday.
AFP Public Information Office chief Col. Tristan Kison said Ustadz Abdulgani
Pagao, said to be a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) holding
peace negotiations with the Arroyo administration, is now undergoing tactical
interrogation in Manila.
Pagao was arrested near a military base in Awang, Maguindanao, last Tuesday,
Kison said.
He said Pagao is being held for his alleged participation in numerous bomb
attacks in Mindanao and Manila five years ago that resulted in the killing and
injury of hundreds of people.
According to Kison, members of the Philippine National Police-Criminal
Investigation and Detection Group had conducted the operations while the
military assisted in taking custody of the suspect.
Kison said there are reports that Pagao attended the same university in Tripoli,
Libya, with the late Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, founder of Abu Sayyaf and
older brother of present ASG chief Khadaffy Janjalani.
The military said the Abu Sayyaf has ties with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror
network.
PHILIPINES: MUSLIM CLERIC SUSPECTED OF HAVING LINKS WITH ABU SAYYAF DETAINED
Cotabato City, 4 August
(AKI) - A Filipino Muslim cleric was detained over alleged links with the Abu
Sayyaf terrorist organization, police and military officials told Adnkronos
International (AKI) on Friday. Senior Inspector Samson Obatay, the city's police
spokesperson, confirmed that Hussain Abedin was a suspected member of the group
Abu Sofia and was arrested at 7.00 pm at the terminal of Weena Buss Company in
Cotabato City, in Mindanao, southern Philippines on Thursday.
"He had existing arrest warrants and we have been looking for him," Obatay said.
Known for its kidnapping and ransom activities, Abu Sofia often provides
sanctuary to members of the militant Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf and
both organisations have been involved in terrorism.
Obatay said Abedin's arrest came 10 days after three other suspected Abu Sofia
bandits were nabbed while holding meetings with their recruits in the village of
Bulalo, in Sultan Kudarat town, Mindanao. The three – named Alo, Talip and Manan
and all surnamed Binago - were involved in the abduction of Korean Jae Kwon Yoon
and his Filipino partner Belonio, in February 2004.
Yoon and Belonio were snatched by heavily armed men in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat
province, while surveying sites there for treasure hunting. The victims were
released after relatives paid ransom.
Colonel Julieto Ando, the army's Sixth Infantry Division spokesperson, said that
Abedin was also a renowned bomb-maker.
"He is also involved in bomb making. The suspect was detained at a military
prison facility located in Pedro Colina Hill," Ando told AKI.
However, the arrest of the cleric has upset local Muslim militant organizations
that have staged protests.
Amirah Lidasan, head of Suara Bangsamoro group, denounced Abedin's arrest,
saying the victim is a Muslim cleric who belongs to United Youth Bangsamoro for
Peace and Development, a non-government organization based in Maguindanao.
"We demand his immediate release. We denounce the use of Uztads (religious
teachers) as fall guys of [Filipino] President Arroyo's renewed campaign against
Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah in Mindanao," Lidasan told AKI in a telephone
interview.
Demanding the release of Abedin is also Eid Kabalu, spokesperson for the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who confirmed that the cleric belongs to their
organization.
"But he is not a member of any Abu Sayyaf group or kidnap gangs. He was a victim
of mistaken identity," Kabalu said.
The MILF, which is engaged in peace talks with Manila, repeatedly denies links
with Abu Sayyaf militants.
The Abu Sayyaf Group is a home grown terrorist organisation in the Philippines
which in the early 1990s received financial support from the al-Qaeda terrorist
network via Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, Saudi Arabian businessman Mohammed
Jamal Khalifa, who at that time headed a network of Islamic charities and
universities in Zamboanga City, Mindanao.
The group gained international notoriety with the kidnapping for ransom and
murder of foreigners and Christian clerics. Since its inception the group has
also carried out bombings, assassinations and extortion in its fight for an
independent Islamic state in western Mindanao