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21 Sayyaf men charged for beheading 2 loggers


Twenty-one members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), including a rebel leader blamed for bombings in Mindanao last April, have been charged with multiple murders for beheading two loggers in Basilan last week, a local police official said Saturday. The charges were filed on Friday with the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor in Isabela City against 21 Abu Sayyaf bandits, led by Puruji Indama, for the killing of two lumberjacks in Maluso town last Saturday, Senior Supt. Antonio Mendoza of the Basilan provincial police said in a text message. Those charged reportedly abducted and beheaded loggers Daduh Lumatang and Manuel Lumasag. [See: Abu Sayyaf beheads 2 in Balsilan — police] The kidnapping and beheading of the lumberjacks were supposedly led by Indama, a mid-level bandit leader currently facing raps for a series of bombings in Basilan last April. Mendoza said in the same text message that the police decided to file charges against the 21 bandits “after thorough investigation" of the incident revealed Indama and other ASG members’ link in the killings. The Abu Sayyaf group has been blamed for various kidnap-for-ransom and bombing incidents not only in Mindanao, but also in Metro Manila. — with Andreo Calonzo/LBG, GMANews.TV

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