Five civilians were abducted by a bandit group in the Philippines' southern province of Basilan, the country's military said on Thursday.
The five employees of the Basilan Electric Cooperative, Inc. were kidnapped on Thursday morning by suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf group, said Romeo Brawner Jr., spokesman for the Philippine Army.
Philippine TV network ABS-CBN News reported that the employees were conducting meter reading when the abduction took place.
It came a week after four other civilians, including a senior TV correspondent called Ces Drilon, were released by some Abu Sayyaf abductors after at least 15 million pesos (339,000 U.S. dollars) was given as ransom. The four were kidnapped in another southern province Sulu on June 8, and security forces have been pursuing the kidnappers.
The provinces of Sulu and Basilan are known lairs of the dreaded bandit group, which has alleged links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network.
The Abu Sayyaf group is a loose organization and its estimated 360 members are scattered across the hinterlands of the country's southern region of Mindanao, according to the Philippine military. It has been blamed for a series of bombing attacks and kidnapping in the country.
Source:Xinhua
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