Abu Sayyaf abduct incumbent Jolo town councilor

MAGUINDANAO ---- Investigators are still trying to identify the abductors of a councilor in Jolo town in Sulu who was snatched Wednesday in a hostile territory in the island province.Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, director of the Regional Police Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said on Thursday that investigators are now working with military intelligence units in locating the victim, Ezeddin Tan.He is a nephew Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan, Jr, according municipal officials in Sulu.Sindac said Tan was abducted by gunmen at the border of Barangays Tagbak and Timbangan in Indanan at dusk Wednesday while biking along with other Tausug bikers.Sindac, citing initial feedback from the Sulu provincial police office, said there is strong indication that Tan alone was the target of the group that snatched him.He was taken away by his captors using as getaway vehicle parked near where he was flagged down and kidnapped.Sindac said reports reaching his office at Camp SK Pendatun town in Parang, Maguindanao indicated that the gunmen who snatched Tan belong to the Ajang-Ajang faction in the Abu Sayyaf.The Abu Sayyaf, a militant group that uses the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as revolutionary banner, is engaged in kidnap-for-ransom activities to generate funds needed to sustain its operation in southern Island provinces.