24 April 2017•Update: 25 April 2017
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Daesh-linked militants beheaded a former Moro rebel abducted four days earlier in the Philippines’ southern island province of Sulu, a military official said Monday.
In a statement, Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, chief of Western Mindanao Command, said the severed head and body of Anni Siraji was found in Patikul at around 2.00 p.m. local time (0600GMT) Sunday.
Siraji was abducted by Abu Sayyaf on Apr. 20 as he travelled to a peace and development mission in the area.
He was a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who had been integrated into the military and police following the signing of a peace deal with Manila in September 1996.
"We condemn this recent barbaric act of band of terrorists. Their penchant for beheading as a means to kill has become so notorious that it knows no bounds," Galvez said.
"We warn all Suluanons to be wary of this group (Abu Sayyaf). If they can brutally murder a fellow Moro and a fellow Tausug then no one is safe.
"This has to stop. The perpetrators have to be identified and arrested,” he added.
Since 1991, Abu Sayyaf -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortion in a self-determined fight for an independent province in the Philippines.
