Yemeni's Kidnappers Demand US$1 Million

COTABATO CITY, Feb 8  -- Kidnappers holding a Yemeni national in southern Philippines reported to have demanded US$1 million as ransom for the release of their captive, China's Xinhua news agency reported, citing a local police as saying Monday.

Chief Superintendent Julius Coyme, the head of police in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur, said they recently got information of the kidnappers' demand in exchange for the freedom of Najibal Udaini, a member of World Assembly of Muslim Youth.

Coyme said the provincial governor, Mamintal Adiong, has created a crisis management committee to secure Najibal's freedom.

"We have no information as to where the captors brought their victim but our operation is ongoing. We are verifying the demand of his captors," he said.

Unidentified gunmen abducted Najibal on Jan. 29 while heading back to his hotel in Marawi City.

Najibal, an active member of an international non-governmental organization, has been involved in building madrasah religious schools and mosques in the Mindanao.

No group claimed responsible for the abduction. But Philippine security forces blamed Al-Qaeda affiliated Abu Sayyaf militants in previous incidents.

The Abu Sayyaf group, founded in the early 1990s by Islamic extremists, is notorious for kidnappings, bombings and even beheadings in the South over the past decade.

The group was blacklisted by Washington as a foreign terrorist organisation.