Armed men abducts 7-year-old girl in Tawi-Tawi

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Armed men abducted a seven-year-old girl and wounded her mother after a brief altercation with her father in Sitio Pulao Pinang, Barangay Himba, Tandubas town in Tawi-Tawi on Monday night.

Brigadier General Custodio Parcon, the commander of Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi, said five to seven men arrived on a boat and docked in front of the store owned by the family of Rahim Astah, pretending to buy gasoline.

When the girl’s father Rahim noticed their suspicious move, he reportedly drew his caliber .45 pistol, prompting one of the men to grab his daughter Radznalyn.

Rahim fired his pistol, hitting one of the men, who fought back and hit his wife, Rasha. They fled north of Baluman Island in Languyan and brought the girl with them.

Parcon said they were using a green Jungkong type boat with twin engines and a yellow-striped blue Tiririt boat.

Parcon said the police were looking into the motive of the abduction, including the possibility that it is drug-related since Astah was previously a drug user who turned himself over to the government.

There was no demand for ransom from the abductors so far.

The girl’s mother, who sustained gunshot wounds, was already in stable condition at the Datu Halon Hospital. /ee