The victim, a 14-year-old boy, identified as Mohd Khairuddin, was rescued during an operation by the Philippine authorities on Kalupag Island after notorious Abu Sayyaf commander “Apo Mike” was killed in a gun battle on Saturday.
The shoot-out happened two days after the rescue of three other Indonesian hostages last Thursday.
In the incident on Thursday, several Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, lead by Apo Mike, whose real name is Majan Sahidjuan, got into trouble when one of their boats sprang a leak and capsized near an island in Tawi-Tawi. While his comrades fled with the three hostages they were then holding, Apo Mike remained on the island.
Philippines forces killed the two fleeing guerrillas and rescued the three hostages. Arizal Kasta Miran, 30; Arsad Bin Dahlan, 41; and Andi Riswanto, 26.
Apo Mike was later involved in a gun battle with the marine forces on Saturday night in the town of Languyan. He died from loss of blood after the shoot-out, said Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan Jr, of the military’s Western Mindanao Command.
The Indonesian foreign ministry, in a statement, said all four victims, who are from Kabupaten Wakatobi in southeast Sulawesi, were reported healthy and were being prepared to be brought home.
They will taken to Zamboanga before being flown to Manila, for the repatriation process back to Indonesia.
On Jan 16 last year, five Indonesian fishermen working on a Malaysian fishing boat, were abducted by the Abu Sayyaf group in the waters of Tambisan in Sabah. One of them, identified as La Baa, 32, was found dead on Sept 28 last year in Patikul, Sulu, in the Philippines.
“We are happy that all the hostages are safe now and we are also able to neutralise the notorious ‘Apo Mike’ and two of his comrades,” Vinluan said.
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Apo Mike and four other Abu Sayyaf militants had fled from assaults in Sulu province by boat on Thursday. They attempted to cross the sea border to Tambisan island where they planned to release their hostages in exchange for a ransom of about RM400,000.
Their boat capsized due to strong waves, allowing troops to launch the assault.