A commander general of the Indonesian Military said that IS group is building its base in Mindanao.
INDONESIAN – Commander General Gatot Nurmantyo of the Indonesian Military (TNI) said that the Islamic State (IS) group is building its base in Mindanao.
Based on a recent news in Inquirer, TNI commander General Gatot Nurmantyo said that the IS group is setting up a base in Mindanao.
On the sidelines of an event in Central Jakarta, Gatot expressed that the group can enter Indonesia from the Southern Philippines. He stressed that concerns regarding the issue has already been raised by him for six months already.
Based on the report, several Indonesian and Malaysian sailors were kidnapped by the armed militants and in exchange for the life of those whom they got, millions of dollars are the ransom.
The group is believed to have a link with Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group which Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is ready to talked to based on a previous report.
In October, Inquirer.net reported that the money got by the Abu Sayyaf would not fall below 353 million pesos in a six months span – January to June.
Although the government of Indonesia has put down the idea that they have paid for the release of 14 Indonesian and four Malaysian nationals captured by the terrorist group, it is thought that a part of the 353 million pesos came from the Indonesian government as ransom according to the report.
Isnilon Totoni Hapilon, the former commander of Abu Sayyaf, has been appointed by the head of the IS supreme, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, as the chief of the forces of the Islamic State in Southeast Asia.
Furthermore, it is stated that the Abu Sayyaf has pledged its loyalty to the IS supreme chief or ‘caliph’.
The TNI Commander General said that the financial sources of the IS group in the Middle East has been minimized that is why it chose Southeast Asia as its base in the future.