MANILA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Abu Sayaff extremists have abducted four people, including two policewomen in Patikul town in Sulu, bring to 14 the number of hostages in the hands of the militants in southern Philippines, an Army general said on Monday.
Brig. Cirilito Sobejana, the commander of the militarys Joint Task Force Sulu, tracking the militants, said the four were abducted around 12:40 p.m. on Sunday afternoon in the boondocks of Patikul, a remote town in the southernmost Sulu province.
Sobejana said the kidnapping victims were two police officers assigned with the Crime Laboratory of the Zamboanga Peninsula Regional Police Office in Zamboanga City, and the other two their companions.
Sobejana said the four were aboard a tricycle, on the way back from a leisure trip, when they were snatched by 11 Abu Sayyaf men in Liang, a village of Patikul town.
The military believes that the kidnappers and their victims remain in Patikul town.
"As we speak, we have three battalions already deployed for the immediate recovery of the victims," Sobejana said.
