Search on for 4 suspected Jemaah Islamiyah members in Zamboanga

ZAMBOANGA CITY—The police and military intelligence communities here and in Western Mindanao are now in search of four suspected Jemaah Islamiyah members that allegedly arrived through the so-called backdoor last year.

Senior Supt. Angelito Casimiro, the city police director, told the Inquirer that all four were Malaysian citizens.

“Their plan was to go straight to Basilan, then board a plane from Zamboanga to Manila and then to the Middle East,” he said, quoting an information provided by the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) in Tawi-Tawi.

Casimiro said based on what the BID had told them, Malaysian authorities also provided details on the four Malaysian nationals.

After their arrival here during the first quarter of 2014, Casimiro said the four foreigners went to Basilan to join the group of Puruji Indama, a Basilan-based Abu Sayyaf sub-leader.

“We suspect that they went to Basilan either to train Abu Sayyaf members in bomb-making or as students of Indama,” Casimiro said.

The Aviation Security Group, port security and those manning bus terminals had been provided copies of photos of the four Malaysian JI members because there were also reports they were moving in and out of Basilan to other Western Mindanao areas, he said.

But Casimiro also admitted that “we don’t have warrants of arrest for these overstaying Malaysians.”