Philippine authorities have arrested a founding member of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group blamed for some of the worst terror attacks in the region, security officials said on Sunday. Ustadz Ahmadsali Asmad Badron, also known as Ammad or Hamad Ustadz Idris, was arrested on Saturday in the remote Tawi-Tawi islands in the southern Philippines. Police criminal investigation regional chief Edgar Danao said Badron was one of the founding members of Abu Sayyaf, which was founded in the 1990s using seed money from Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Along with one of his cousins Badron worked alongside Galib Andang, the notorious Abu Sayyaf leader well known as “Commander Robot”, under whom the group carried out a daring cross-border raid on a Malaysian resort in April 2000 and kidnapped dozens of foreign tourists.
