Families hope for release by Raya

KOTA KINABALU: The families of five Malaysians still being held hostage in Jolo are praying that they will be home by Hari Raya.

Their last contact with the hostages, who are all related, was more than a month ago before an intensified Philippine military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf began.

Gustiah Sultan, 46, wife of Tayudin Anjut, 46, said she last spoke to her husband in December and the silence and uncertainty about his fate now was a torture.

“But I pray all the time and hope that he is fine and well, and that he and the others will be released by Hari Raya,” she said.

“It’s been eight months now and we don’t know how the negotiations are going. We just hope the police and those in charge of this case can help speed up the release of my husband and relatives.”

Asked whether she knows why the abductors have gone quiet and have not been contacting them, Gustiah said it could be because there was no telecommunication reception from where they were.

“The last time I spoke to my husband, he told me that they were moving in the jungle and many a time there was no reception from where they were,” she said.

She said the five were still in a group together.

Besides Tayudin, the other hostages are Mohd Ridzuan Ismail, Abd Rahim Summas, 62, Mohd Zumadil Rahim, 23, and Fandy Bakran, 26.

Meanwhile Hariyanti Hamsih, 31, Mohd Ridzuan’s wife, said she last spoke to him more than a month ago.

“We don’t know how things are going now, we are in the dark and we pray for their safety every day,” she said.

Like the other wives and relatives, she also hoped the security forces would be able to secure the release of the victims as soon as possible.

It is learnt that the family have managed to raise more than RM100,000 to help secure the release of the hostages but the abductors were not budging from their RM3mil ransom demand.

The five men have been held hostage since July 18, 2016 by the gunmen who snatched them from their tugboat off Lahad Datu’s Dent Haven.