The government of a southern Philippine island appealed yesterday for a state of emergency to be declared after dozens of Islamic militants escaped from jail and others beheaded a hostage.
As well as imposing emergency rule, Basilan Vice Governor Al Rasheed Sakalahul called on Philippine President Gloria Arroyo to send extra troops to his island.
He urged Arroyo to declare “a state of emergency, if only to finish this once and for all, to apprehend and prosecute all of these Abu Sayyaf.”
“We need more troops in the province,” Sakalahul also said.
Abu Sayyaf is a local group of Islamic militants allegedly set up in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. The US lists Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization and since 2001 has stationed a small number of troops to the southern Philippines to train the military in fighting the militants.
Abu Sayyaf members were among 31 people who escaped from Basilan’s main jail on Sunday.
Authorities said more than 100 militants stormed the jail, breaking down part of the jail’s wall, to secure the release of those inside. One prison guard and one of the militant raiders died during a gunbattle.
The jail break came just days after suspected Abu Sayyaf militants dumped the severed head of a man they had kidnapped in a Basilan park.
The day after the head was dumped, the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped a college professor on Basilan, according to police. He is among three people being held captive by the group, which specialises in kidnappings for ransom.
Abu Sayyaf is also blamed for the nation’s worst terrorist attack of recent times — the bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004 that left more than 100 people dead.
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