Military believes Abu Sayyaf leader is dead

A high-ranking Abu Sayyaf leader was killed in September in an encounter with military troops, the Philippine Armed Forces believed.

Furuji Indama, a senior Abu Sayyaf leader based in Basilan province, was reportedly killed after an hour-long shootout with military troops last month, Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan, head of the Western Mindanao Command of the AFP (Westmincom).

However, the army has yet to see his body or find his grave to officially confirm the death.

Vinluan said the army is currently in the process of locating Indama’s burial site to confirm her death. However, Vinluan said they believed he died “based on intelligence community reports and information from his relatives.

In a text message to reporters, Westmincom spokesman Lt. Col. Alaric De los Santos said they had information that Indama was seriously injured during the September 2020 encounter.

The army previously reported that during the September confrontation between the 44th Infantry Battalion and the Abu Sayyaf Group in the city of Alicia, Zamboanga Sibugay province, at least five members of the Abu Sayyaf under Indama’s command were killed. The military did not name Indama as one of the fatalities at the time.

Suicide bombing

Indama was held responsible for the suicide bombing that killed 11 people in the town of Lamitan, Basilan, in July 2018.

He was also part of the group wanted in the 2001 kidnapping of 21 local and foreign tourists at the Dos Palmas resort in the Palawan province, including American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham.

Martín was assassinated by his captors on June 7, 2002, at the height of the rescue operation carried out by the military in the province of Zamboanga del Norte.

Gracia was rescued and her husband’s remains were taken to Kansas, where he was buried on June 14 of the same year.

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