Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 28) – Sabah state authorities handed over to the Philippines eight suspected Abu Sayyaf members arrested in a raid early this month, according to the Malaysian government news agency, Bernama.
A Sabah police official said the detainees were transferred Friday morning in the maritime borders of the Philippines and Malaysia.
Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan confirmed the transfer though he has yet to get a formal report from one of his deputies, Brig. Gen. Arturo Rojas. Rojas, the commander of Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi, received the detainees from the Malaysian immigration office.
Travel details of the suspected militants back to the country were withheld for the meantime due to security concerns, Vinluan said.
The militants, including an alleged bandit “sub-leader” identified by the military, were captured in a police operation in a mangrove swamp south of Sabah’s capital, Kota Kinabalu on May 8. Dozens of undocumented Filipinos were also rounded up in the raid, Bernama reported.
Days later, five more suspected ASG members were killed in a shootout with the police in the same area, according to a separate Bernama report.
Local authorities, quoted by the state news agency, believed the militants may have planned to stage more ransom kidnappings in Sabah and other parts of Borneo island.
Filipino military officials also previously said that the Abu Sayyaf helped facilitate the travel of foreign extremists who fled the Middle East, to the southern Philippines to launch terror activities.
