ZAMBOANGA CITY – Government troops on Saturday arrested a ranking leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) who carries a P3.3 million bounty for his arrest – “dead or alive” – in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.

The military reported that government troops led by 2Lt. Emery Torre of the Marine Battalion Landing Team-2 (MBLT-2) arrested ASG leader Abdulkahil Mallah alias “Ibni Acosta” at the Bongao pier on Saturday night.

The military said Mallah was about to board a vessel bound for this city to seek medical treatment for a bullet wound near his neck when he was arrested by government troops.

The ASG leader, guarded by the marine troops, is back at the hospital in Bongao undergoing medical treatment for his wound, the military reported.

Mallah was wounded after an unidentified gunman shot him and his three companions last Friday at Sitio Kasulutan, Tubig Tanah in Bongao. The gunman fled to Kalye Bisaya in Barangay Kasanyangan.

The military said Mallah has a warrant of arrest for 21 counts of kidnapping for ransom and serious illegal detention.

In a related development, in this city, government troops arrested on Monday an ASG rebel allegedly involved in mass kidnapping in Basilan some nine years ago.

The suspect, Alih Mandangan, was arrested around 10 p.m. on Monday in Barangay Rio Hondo in this city on strength of warrants of arrest for kidnapping and serious illegal detention in the mass kidnapping in 2000 in Barangay Tumahubong, Sumisip, Basilan.