Basilan governor: Janjalani is dead

ZAMBOANGA CITY – A top government official confirmed yesterday that Khadaffi Janjalani, a leader of the bandit group Abu Sayyaf, has been dead for two weeks now.

Basilan Gov. Wahib Akbar told reporters here that Janjalani died after being seriously wounded when government forces engaged the bandits in a firefight on May 31 in Tuburan town.

"I am very sure of my revelation," Akbar said, when asked if the bandit leader’s death could be confirmed.

Akbar said Janjalani’s deteriorating condition was the main reason why his followers were forced to attack Lamitan town and seize the Jose Torres Hospital.

"They were in need of a doctor. However, the hospital’s physician managed to escape before the Abu Sayyaf could seize the compound," Akbar said.

The governor said the group led by the bandits was forced to escape Lamitan when soldiers readied a possible assault on the church-hospital compound. Janjalani was believed to be near-death during the siege.

Once the bandits evaded the military, the critically injured Janjalani was taken to a waiting pumpboat and brought to Tuburan.

"It was there were he was buried," Akbar said.

He pointed out that for three days now, civilian agents have been conducting surveillance operations in the site where Janjalani is believed to be buried.

A day after the Lamitan siege, the military had received reports that Janjalani was killed in an earlier encounter.

However, no body was found. An Abu Sayyaf spokesman later denied Janjalani had been killed.

If confirmed, Janjalani would be the second Abu Sayyaf leader to be killed in an encounter against the government forces. His elder brother Ustadz Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, the group’s founder, was killed by police commandos in 1998 also in Lamitan town.

The brother was named successor a year later and led the mass abduction of priests, teachers and students on March 20, 2000. — Roel Pareño