Gunmen release two kidnapped victims in S Philippines
COTABATO CITY, Philippines. February 25. KAZINFORM Gunmen freed late Thursday their two captives they had seized inside their campus in the southern Philippines, police said Friday. Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
Cris Neil Gulfan, 24, and Aubrey Virtudez, 19, were turned over by the kidnappers to Fahad Salik, a high-ranking official of the southern city of Marawi in Lanao del Sur province who led a team of negotiators, said Chief Supt. Bienvenido Latag, police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The release was due to pressure after relentless joint military- police operations with the help of Marawi city, sources from the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga said, adding that it is likely that no ransom was paid.
The two were forcibly taken on Feb. 19 by armed men in an Internet shop inside a university in Marawi. kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com