The wife of one of Southeast Asia's most-wanted terror suspects has asked the Philippines to release four of their children who were found in a suspected militant hide-out, a relative of the Indonesian woman said yesterday.
Philippine soldiers and police raided the hide-out in a southern province on Friday and found the four children of Dulmatin, a militant suspected in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, abandoned there, according to a Philippine military spokesman. The children, aged between two and nine, were handed to local social services personnel.
Dulmatin's wife, Istiada Binti Omar Sovie, and two other children were detained on the southern Philippines island of Jolo last October and deported to Indonesia a month later. In the process, Istiada was separated from her other children.
Istiada broke down in tears when she learned that the four children were found neglected during the raid on the suspected rebel hide-out, said Istiada's brother, Ibrahim Azi.
"She is very shocked and unable to talk," Ibrahim said. "She begged the government to return them to their mother here, because they are innocent."
Dulmatin and fellow Indonesian Umar Patek are suspected of helping plot bombings on Bali that killed 202 people in 2002. Philippine security officials believe the men were also involved in helping a local Muslim group, the Abu Sayyaf, carry out a 2004 attack that gutted a ferry and killed 116 people.
Dulmatin has evaded a US-backed offensive in the Philippines' south since last year. The US has offered a US$10 million reward for Dulmatin's capture.
Dulmatin's mother, Masniati, said she regretted that the family learned about the capture of the four children from the news media.
"We [were] shocked when we saw the pictures of the children in the media," she said. "Please release my grandchildren because they don't understand what their father has done."
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