Bomb expert Abdul Basit Usman is said to still be hiding inside the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s territory in Maguindanao even as security forces yesterday launched a joint operation to capture him after he eluded the police operation on Jan. 25 that resulted in the death of 44 police commandos.
“The MILF can’t deny that Usman is within their territory,” said Absalom Cerveza, spokesman of the Moro National Liberation Front.
He said Mindanao residents had expressed alarm over the operation to capture Usman for whom the US government has offered a bounty of $1 million.
“Where will they look for Usman? There are only two other armed groups [since] Usman will not hide with the New People’s Army,” Cerveza said. “So it’s either with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters or the MILF.”
Cerveza made his statement even as Rasid Ladiasan, head of the MILF’s Coordinating committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, on Tuesday said the MILF was not a terrorist group and was not associated with the BIFF.
He made the statement after Senate Majority Leader Peter Cayetano told the Senate inquiry on the Mamasapano debacle that the MILF was coddling terrorists, including Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and Usman.
“We are not terrorists, We have been fighting terrorism in all its forms through the peace process,” Ladiasan said.
The Commission on Human Rights, meanwhile, wanted to clear some legal issues with the Foreign Affairs and Justice Departments to know what court issued arrest warrants on Marwan and Usman with a bounty of $5 million and $1 million, respectively.
The agency said the origin of the warrants could be material evidence of human rights violations in its 90-day probe of the Mamasapano clash.
Ceveza said Usman, a member of the Abu Sayyaf group, was trained by the Jemaah Islamiyah and that had endeared him to the BIFF and radical elements in the MILF. But he had also been linked to some groups in the MNLF. (Details C/O Manila Standard, Francisco Tuyay)
