NO RANSOM Meanwhile, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau maintained a no-ransom policy on Tuesday, adding that Canada and Britain will urge other nations not to pay ransoms to free kidnap victims.
Advertisement
“This was an act of cold-blooded murder and responsibility rests with the terrorist group who took him hostage”, Trudeau said in Ottawa.
Ridsdel was one of four tourists kidnapped by the militants from Samal Island in September previous year.
Kidnapped along with Ridsdel were Robert Hall, also Canadian, Norwegian national Kjartan Sekkingstad, and a Filipina named Marites Flor.
The men were forced to beg for their lives on camera, and similar videos posted over several months showed the hostages looking increasingly frail.
The President of the Philippines said he is “appalled” by the murder of Canadian citizen John Ridsdel by ISIS-aligned militants in the south of the country.
“We agreed that it is something we are going to make sure we do bring up with our friends and allies around the world as we come to grips with the fact that the world is a unsafe place”, Trudeau said. “First, obviously this is a significant source of funds for terrorists organizations that then allow them to perpetrate deadly acts of violence against innocents around the world”, he said.
Six weeks after the abduction, Abu Sayyaf gunmen released a video on social media of their hostages held in a jungle setting demanding Dollars 21 million each for the safe release of the three foreigners. But he said of the Abu Sayyaf, “You have chosen only the language of force and we will speak to you only in that language”.
“Troops are still verifying if the body was that of John Ridsdel”.
The Abu Sayyaf militants are thought to be holding a number of captives, including 14 Indonesian and four Malaysian crewmen who were abducted at gunpoint from three tugboats starting last month off Tawi-Tawi in the southern Philippines waters near Sabah border.
Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based counter-terrorism expert, said there were links between the ASG and Islamic State-backed groups in Indonesia, the faction behind Monday’s beheading appeared to be in it for the money.
Reports said the severed head of Ridsdel, which was inside a plastic bag dropped by two men on a motorcycle, was found by residents in the center of Jolo town, five hours after the expiry of the ransom deadline.
The army received intelligence that Abu Sayyaf had carried out an execution outside Patikul town on Jolo island, a known rebel stronghold.
“He could bridge many communities, many people, many situations and circumstances and environments in a very gentle way”, said Gerald Thurston, a lifelong friend of the former mining executive and journalist who grew up with him in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
Advertisement
He said Isnilon Hapilon, whom the Islamic State has recognized as a local Filipino leader, was behind these plots.
