By Darwin Wally T. Wee / Philippines News Agency
ZAMBOANGA CITY—Various sectors on Monday condemned the beheading of the Moro soldier who was seized by Abu Sayyaf bandits last week in Sulu province.
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman said the execution of Staff Sgt. Anni Siraji, a Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) combatant-turned- soldier, just showed the need for the government to exert all efforts to end the Abu Sayyaf problem.
“On behalf of the Bangsamoro people, the leadership of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao [ARMM] condemns in the strongest terms the beheading of Staff Sgt. Anni Siraji,” Hataman said. “Siraji is the latest victim of what has become a series of indiscriminate acts of terrorism by the Abu Sayyaf, killing even our fellow Bangsamoro,” Hataman added.
He described the recent atrocity as “acts of violence, acts that go against the grain of our humanity, which continuously hamper our efforts toward peace and justice within our shores.”
“These bandits—cowards who have no honor and no shame—have betrayed the cause that our most faithful mujahideens have fought for. These terrorists have no claim to the values of Islam, nor to the brave and dignified history of our people,” he said.
ARMM’s Darul Ifta (Fatwa Council) said in a statement that the recent atrocity of the Abu Sayyaf has showed their brutality and disregard to the teachings of Islam.
“The ARMM Regional Darul Ifta strongly condemns this inhuman and un-Islamic act by the Abu Sayyaf Group [for the] beheading of brother Anni Siraji,” the group said.
Government troops found last Sunday the headless body of Siraji a few kilometers where the Abu Sayyaf bandits abducted him on Thursday in the town of Patikul.
Siraji is assigned with the Army’s 32nd Infantry Battalion and a native of Sulu. He joined the military through the integration program after the government and the MNLF signed a peace agreement on September 2, 1996.
“While Siraji was a soldier, he was an MNLF member who decided to trade his rifle as a fighter to become a peacemaker and an agent of development to his fellow Tausugs,” Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., Western Mindanao Command chief, said on Monday.
Galvez said the military will sustain the military operation against the Abu Sayyaf in line with the order of President Duterte to finish off the Abu Sayyaf in six months from January. The victim was the third hostage that the Abu Sayyaf bandits beheaded this year.
In Manila the Armed Forces warned Abu Sayyaf bandits that they would suffer the same fate as their companions who were killed by government forces during a series of encounters in Bohol.
The killed bandits were members of the estimated 11-man band of Abu Sayyaf subleader Muamar Askali, alias Abu Rami, who made an incursion in Inabanga, Bohol, on April 10, reportedly to abduct some tourists for their kidnap-for-ransom scheme. However, this attempt fizzled out, as they were neutralized by responding government forces resulting in the death of Askali and three other bandits on April 11.
“The military has sent a very strong message: Do not attempt to propagate your nefarious activities,” said the Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Eduardo Año.
“You will suffer the same fatal consequences as these terrorists for attempting to bring in terror and havoc to this tranquil province of Bohol—or in other places in the country for that matter,” he added.
In a series of encounters in Barangay Bacani, Clarin town, on April 22, four bandits were killed.
The military said that at 12:50 p.m., Joselito Milloria, a former villager of Inabanga who became a Muslim convert (also known as Abu Alih) and later guided the bandits to his former hometown, was the first to get killed.
Seized from his possession were an Israel-made Galil rifle with an attached M-203 grenade launcher and several rounds of ammunition.
Operations continued and another armed encounter erupted at 8 p.m. Three more bandits were killed and two more high-powered firearms were seized—an M-16 and an M-14—a well as ammunition for the weapons.
The military is still on the hunt for an estimated three more bandits, who are reportedly wounded and running low on ammunition.
With Priam F. Nepomuceno