Military: Expect ‘fireworks’ in Basilan

There will be “fireworks" in Basilan province in the coming days as government security forces go full force in rescuing a kidnap victim and pursuing terrorists who recently escaped a jail facility there, a military official said. “We expect in the next few days there will be fireworks because there will be an intensified military operations not only to rescue the vice president of the Basilan State College, but to go after those who escaped from jail," Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban said Wednesday. Sabban said they would be assisted by police forces in the operations. “There will be uniform operations not only coming from the military but also from the police, so it will go hand in hand." The kidnap victim, Dr. Orlando Fajardo, was snatched by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits last December 10 in Brgy. Sumagdang in Isabela City. The kidnappers are reportedly asking for a P20 million ransom. Pursuit operations against the dozens who escaped Basilan Provincial Jail last Sunday, meanwhile, continue. Earlier in the day, patrolling troops from the Army’s 32nd Infantry Battalion clashed with an undermined number of armed men in Barangay Baiwas in Sumisip town. The enemies were believed to be the group that attacked the jail facility, which led to the escape 31 inmates, according to Maj. Joel Lazo, spokesman of the military’s Western Mindanao Command. “[The troops were] conducting punitive operations against the people involved the jailbreak," he said. One soldier was killed while another one was wounded in the encounter. Among those who escaped in the jailbreak were Abu Sayyaf bandits and two senior leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF leaders were nabbed for involvement in the ambush of Marine soldiers in Al Barkah town in Basilan in July 2007. The incident resulted in the killing of 14 soldiers, 10 of them beheaded and mutilated. The government's Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) has already offered a P2-million reward for any information that could led to the arrest of the fugitives. - KBK, GMANews.TV