Sri Lankan peace activist abducted in Philippines

Police say a Sri Lankan peace activist has become the latest victim of a wave of kidnappings in the southern Philippines blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants.

Police say a Sri Lankan peace activist has become the latest victim of a wave of kidnappings in the southern Philippines blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants.

HT Image

Basilan island police chief Salik Macapantar said Omar Jalil from the nonpartisan group Nonviolent Peaceforce, which has been monitoring a decades-old Muslim separatist uprising in the Philippines, was taken by nine gunmen from his Basilan residence early on Friday.

The Filipino caretaker of the house managed to escape.

Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants, notorious for ransom kidnappings and terror attacks, are holding three teachers and a lending company employee on Basilan, and three international Red Cross workers, including two Europeans, on nearby Jolo island.