MANILA, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen have freed the nine sea gypsies they abducted at sea on last Tuesday after realizing the hostages cannot pay ransom money in exchange for their release, police said on Saturday.
Police said local patrolling police spotted the nine unharmed on last Friday night while walking along the road at 11:00 p.m. on Friday in Kahawa village in Talipao, a coastal town in Sulu province in the southern Philippines.
After interrogation, police identified nine men as those taken from a fishing boat by Abu Sayyaf from waters off Sabah in eastern Malaysia.
The hostages, believed to be members of the Bajau Laut, a community of sea gypsies, were apparently taken to the bandits' jungle lair in Talipao town.
Police said the victims, aged between 17 and 60, told police investigators that they were fishing on Tuesday in the waters of Lahad Datu in Sabah when gunmen aboard two speedboats snatched them around 2:45 a.m.
The Malaysian authorities said the hostages sped towards the southernmost island province of Tawi-Tawi, prompting Philippine security forces to go on alert.
The victims were said to be in good condition and were brought to a hospital in Sulu for a medical check-up. After the check-up, the victims were brought back to Talipao Police Station for documentation.
The Abu Sayyaf Group operates in the waters off the west coast of Mindanao island in the southern Philippines, mainly in the Philippine provinces of the Sulu Archipelago, but has also conducted cross-border operations into eastern Malaysia.
The group, estimated to have 400 members, is notorious for carrying out kidnappings-for-ransom, bombings, ambushes of security personnel, public beheadings, assassinations, and extortion.
The group preys on foreign tourists, businessmen and fishermen not only from the Philippines but also from Indonesia and Malaysia and hide them in Philippine jungles or remote islands.
A Dutchman kidnapped in 2012 was shot dead on May 31 while trying to escape during a rescue operation launched by Philippine security forces in the jungles of Patikul town in Sulu province.
The Duterte government has formed an entire army division to hunt down the Abu Sayyaf militants blamed for a series of kidnapping and bombings in the southern region, including the Jan. 27 twin bombings in a church in Jolo, Sulu that killed 26 and injured more than 100.
