Manila - Islamist militants holding captive three staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are planning to demand at least 5 million dollars in ransom for their hostages' freedom, military sources said Sunday.
According to military intelligence sources, Swiss Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba are being held in the jungles of Indanan town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.
The kidnappers, estimated to number 25, are led by rebel commander Albader Parad and Akmad Jumdail alias Dr. Abu Pula of the Islamist Abu Sayyaf group.
The sources said "Parad is planning to demand 5 million dollars while Dr. Abu is reportedly planning a still unknown political demand" for the safe release of the ICRC team, who were abducted on January 15.
The Philippine military officially declined to comment on the information or give updates about efforts to rescue the three abducted ICRC staff.
"We are suspending operational updates on the military's efforts on the kidnapping," said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres.
"This is being done to avoid the possibility of compromising our operations and unnecessarily risking the safety of the victims," he added.
Abdusakur Tan, governor of the Sulu province, which includes Jolo island, said he was heading a coordinating centre that was overseeing the hostage situation.
But he also refused to give out updates on the kidnapping.
"I cannot say at the moment because we have many plans and we don't want to reveal our actions," he said, when asked if the kidnappers have made contact or issued any demands.
Tan urged the ICRC not to negotiate directly with the kidnappers, saying this would be "costly."
On Saturday, the ICRC said the three staff had been able to call their office and told colleagues that they were unharmed.
The agency has declined to say if ransom has been demanded for the ICRC staff, who were in Jolo to oversee a water and sanitation project in the provincial jail when they were abducted.
Jean-Daniel Tauxe, head of the ICRC delegation in Manila, said the agency had no additional information about the whereabouts of the abducted staff or who is holding them.
"We are not in a position to comment further, since our main priority is ensuring that nothing jeopardizes their safety, but it goes without saying that their families, as well as their colleagues, are hoping for their safe and swift return," he said.
The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebel group has been responsible for deadly terrorist attacks in the Philippines.
It is also notorious for high-profile kidnapping-for-ransom cases, including the abduction of 21 European tourists and Asian workers from a Malaysian resort island in 2000. The hostages were ransomed off for millions of dollars before they were freed months later. dpa
Showing posts with label Islamist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islamist. Show all posts
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Thousands of Israelis mourn Jews killed in Mumbai
Wailing and chanting psalms, thousands of people on Tuesday bid an emotional farewell to the six Jews killed in the bloody Mumbai attacks whose bodies were flown to Israel for burial.
In Kfar Chabad, a village near Tel Aviv that houses the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, around 10,000 mourners thronged the main square, with men and women separated in keeping with Jewish ultra-Orthodox tradition.
Many mourners had tears streaming down their eyes as a rabbi delivering a eulogy cried out: "Why, why, why?"
The crowd chanted psalms in honour of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, who ran Mumbai's Chabad House, a cultural and outreach centre that was one of the targets of Islamist militants whose attacks left 188 people dead.
The two bodies, wrapped in blue and white prayer shawls, were laid out on benches set on a podium.
The couple were among those who died when the heavily-armed extremists last week stormed into the five-storey complex in India's commercial capital. The six Jewish victims were four Israelis, one US citizen and a Mexican.
"Every time a Jew is killed it is hard, but in this case it is members of the family who died," said Yossi Swerdlov, a Chabad leader who called himself a close friend of the Holtzbergs. "He was like a brother to me."
Several political figures attended the ceremony, including President Shimon Peres, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. A few Indians, sporting bright turbans, were also among the crowd.
The Holtzbergs were to be buried on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives.
In Mea Sharim, an ultra-Orthodox enclave in Jerusalem, thousands of people mourned Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum, a US national who belonged to a small group of strictly observant Jews who oppose Zionism on the grounds there can be no state of Israel until the Messiah comes.
Bearded men, clad in the distinctive wide-brimmed hats and black coats of the ultra-Orthodox, wailed, chanted and recited psalms.
Also among those killed in the attack on Chabad House was Mexican citizen Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz who had planned to move this week to Israel where she has now been laid to rest.
On Monday night, a brief ceremony was held at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv as the flag-draped coffins arrived on board an Israeli air force plane.
Among those on the plane were the parents of Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who had earlier attended an emotional ceremony at a Mumbai synagogue where their orphaned two-year-old grandson Moshe cried out for his mother.
Moshe was rescued by his 44-year-old Indian nanny Sandra Samuel, who fled the attackers with the toddler in her arms. Samuel, who was given a passport at the last minute, travelled to Israel with the young boy.
On Monday, Mumbai's Jewish community also paid a tearful farewell to the couple who ran Chabad House, which served as an educational centre, synagogue and a hostel for Israeli tourists.
Rivka's father, Shimon Rosenberg, told about 100 mourners at the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue that Chabad House will be rebuilt.
"The house they built here in Mumbai will live with them. They were the mother and father of the Jewish community in Mumbai," Rosenberg said. "The House of Chabad will live again."
Founded in the 18th century in Russia, Chabad is one of the largest Hassidic sects, whose members remain profoundly attached to their traditions.
India says initial investigations show all 10 militants who carried out the coordinated Mumbai attacks were Pakistani, and suggest they may have been members of a Pakistan-based Islamist group.
In Kfar Chabad, a village near Tel Aviv that houses the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, around 10,000 mourners thronged the main square, with men and women separated in keeping with Jewish ultra-Orthodox tradition.
Many mourners had tears streaming down their eyes as a rabbi delivering a eulogy cried out: "Why, why, why?"
The crowd chanted psalms in honour of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, who ran Mumbai's Chabad House, a cultural and outreach centre that was one of the targets of Islamist militants whose attacks left 188 people dead.
The two bodies, wrapped in blue and white prayer shawls, were laid out on benches set on a podium.
The couple were among those who died when the heavily-armed extremists last week stormed into the five-storey complex in India's commercial capital. The six Jewish victims were four Israelis, one US citizen and a Mexican.
"Every time a Jew is killed it is hard, but in this case it is members of the family who died," said Yossi Swerdlov, a Chabad leader who called himself a close friend of the Holtzbergs. "He was like a brother to me."
Several political figures attended the ceremony, including President Shimon Peres, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. A few Indians, sporting bright turbans, were also among the crowd.
The Holtzbergs were to be buried on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives.
In Mea Sharim, an ultra-Orthodox enclave in Jerusalem, thousands of people mourned Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum, a US national who belonged to a small group of strictly observant Jews who oppose Zionism on the grounds there can be no state of Israel until the Messiah comes.
Bearded men, clad in the distinctive wide-brimmed hats and black coats of the ultra-Orthodox, wailed, chanted and recited psalms.
Also among those killed in the attack on Chabad House was Mexican citizen Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinowitz who had planned to move this week to Israel where she has now been laid to rest.
On Monday night, a brief ceremony was held at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv as the flag-draped coffins arrived on board an Israeli air force plane.
Among those on the plane were the parents of Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who had earlier attended an emotional ceremony at a Mumbai synagogue where their orphaned two-year-old grandson Moshe cried out for his mother.
Moshe was rescued by his 44-year-old Indian nanny Sandra Samuel, who fled the attackers with the toddler in her arms. Samuel, who was given a passport at the last minute, travelled to Israel with the young boy.
On Monday, Mumbai's Jewish community also paid a tearful farewell to the couple who ran Chabad House, which served as an educational centre, synagogue and a hostel for Israeli tourists.
Rivka's father, Shimon Rosenberg, told about 100 mourners at the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue that Chabad House will be rebuilt.
"The house they built here in Mumbai will live with them. They were the mother and father of the Jewish community in Mumbai," Rosenberg said. "The House of Chabad will live again."
Founded in the 18th century in Russia, Chabad is one of the largest Hassidic sects, whose members remain profoundly attached to their traditions.
India says initial investigations show all 10 militants who carried out the coordinated Mumbai attacks were Pakistani, and suggest they may have been members of a Pakistan-based Islamist group.
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