ZAMBOANGA CITY—Government security forces in Western Mindanao said they were tightly monitoring the movement of four foreign jihadists even as world leaders started converging in Manila for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.
Senior Supt. Angelito Casimiro, city police director, said Dr. Mahmud Ahmad, Muammar Ghadafi, Mohammad Najib Husen and Muhammad Joraimee Awang Raimee were sighted in Abu Sayyaf camps in Basilan and had recently tried to travel to Turkey via Manila.
But he said the four foreigners, all of them Malaysians, canceled their planned travel for still unknown reasons.
The Malaysians have been teaching the Abu Sayyaf bomb-making techniques, he said.
Casimiro said while Ahmad, a surgeon previously connected with the Universiti Malaysia and his three associates, were now working for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The four arrived in the Philippines in May 2014 and have been moving around Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, Casimiro said. They are currently in Basilan, he said.
Col. Arthur Biyo, commander of the Joint Task Group Zamboanga, said they were making sure the four Malaysians “would not have the opportunity to penetrate big events like Apec.”
He did not elaborate.
As this developed, Biyo said such special units as antihostage-taking and airport security personnel had been dispatched from Mindanao to help secure Apec delegates in Manila and in Visayas.
“We have sent special units and deployed them for the security needs of Apec participants,” he said. Julie Alipala, with a report from Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao