Kidnappers holding a Filipino-Chinese businessman and his 10-year-old daughter in the southern Philippine have threatened to hurt their captives if government forces do not halt their pursuit operation in the region, a military official said Thursday.

Philippine troops also blamed a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as behind the latest abduction in the troubled region.

Colonel Dominggo Gobway, a local Army commander in charge of the ground operation, told Xinhua the captors phoned late Wednesday night William, the brother of Wilson Tan, asking the military and the police to withdraw their operation or they will hurt their captives.

Tan, in his 50s, and his daughter Jennifer were snatched by four armed men at gunpoint shortly after 17:00 local time (0900 GMT) Wednesday in front of their residence in Cotabato.

Tan's wife Janet, who was along with them before the incident, was hit in the head by the kidnappers using a handgun.

She was brought to a local hospital and is now out of danger.

Tan is the owner of one of the hotels and runs family's fishery business in the city. Pursuing troops later found a burnt vehicle, suspected of being used by the abductors to get away, in a nearby village.

"We are on standby position. serving as blocking force but we are monitoring their movements," Gobway said.

"The kidnappers belong to a group of MILF rebels because one of them was armed with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher," he added.

But city mayor Muslimin Sema said they are still establishing leads as to who were the perpetrators behind.

"We will be forming a task force to address the matter," Sema said.

"We cannot pinpoint the exact location of the kidnappers. It was a sudden incident. Second, the possible location where the kidnappers brought their captives is not accessible," he added.

Earlier, Sema said the MILF has offered its help by sealing offall outlets in the remote areas where its members are stationed.

Rebel spokesperson Eid Kabalu denied their group involvement in the latest kidnapping in the region.

"Any group can now have their own rocket-propelled grenade launcher. It's not exclusive for us. But we are looking into this matter. We have leads," Kabalu told Xinhua by phone.

Tan's abduction occurred just as troops are hunting down Abu Sayyaf militants suspectedly holding a Sri Lankan national Umar Jaleel of Nonviolent Peace force on the Basilan island and three members of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Jolo island, namely, Swiss Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba.

The Abu Sayyaf is a rebel group with some 380 members blamed for a series of kidnappings and terror attacks in the Southeast Asian country, including the bombing of a ferry near Manila Bay in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.

Source: Xinhua