Abu kidnapper wanted for bus terminal bombing neutralized
COTABATO CITY --- State agents shot dead Wednesday in Zamboanga City an Abu Sayyaf terrorist wanted for the abduction of more than 20 people, a number of them foreigners.
The slain Abu Sayyaf member, Arrassid Adjing Hallissam, was also tagged in the 2015 bombing of a bus terminal in Barangay Guiwan in Zamboanga City that killed two commuters and hurt 52 others.
Combined police and military operatives were to arrest Hallissam, also known as Guru Ara, in his hideout in Barangay San Roque in Zamboanga City at about 3:00 a.m. Tuesday, but killed him instead when he resisted.
Hallissam was a henchman of slain Abu Sayyaf figurehead Isnilon Hapilon, who perished in an encounter with soldiers during the bloody 2017 siege of Marawi City that he and leaders of the Maute terror group instigated.
Hallissam was tagged in the abduction of more than 20 people that he and his accomplices released only after receiving hefty ransoms.
Among their victims were foreigners Kevin Lunsmann, Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, Warren Rodwell, Chinese nationals Yu Lin Kai and Jian Luo and a Korean named Nwi Seong Hong, kidnapped in one attack after another in Zamboanga City and in nearby Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay provinces.
In separate statements Wednesday, the Police Regional Office-9 and the military’s Western Mindanao Command both confirmed that Hallissam was also among the bombers behind the January 23, 2015 a bus terminal in Barangay Guiwan in Zamboanga City that resulted in the deaths of two commuters and hurt 52 others.