Gunmen have abducted two Indonesian fishermen off Malaysia’ eastern Sabah state, where a series of similar kidnappings were allegedly carried out by the Philippine Abu Sayyaf militant group, said Malaysian officials on November 6.

Abu Sayyaf is one of several groups in the Philippines to have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group (Photo: BBC)

A group of five gunmen kidnapped two fishing boat captains in separate raids, Wan Abdul Bari Addul Khalid, head of Malaysia's Eastern Sabah Security Command told media.

They also stole the crew’s cellphones and GPS systems on the boat, he added.

As the abductors and the destination where the abducted will be taken to are unclear, the official supposed that this is a form of kidnapping for ransom.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to discuss common security campaigns with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on November 10, in a bid to stop kidnappings along the two countries’ sea borders.

The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of militants formed in the southern Philippines in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. They executed two Canadian hostages earlier this year after falling to get a ransom.

Although Aby Sayyaf leaders have in recent years sworn allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group, experts assume that it mainly focuses on a lucrative kidnapping business rather than religious ideology.

(Source: VNA)