Manila: A joint military and police ground troops team was sent to rescue two Canadians, one Norwegian, and a Filipino in Sulu, southern Philippines, ahead of the April 25 deadline given by suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen who demanded P1.2 billion (Dh95 million) for their release, lower than the P4 billion they had asked for in November 2015, a month after the four were kidnapped from an upscale resort on Samal Island, Davao del Norte, on September 21, 2015, sources said.

“We do not follow deadline[s]. As long as we get the new information [on their whereabouts], the troops will hit them,” said Maj. Filemon Tan junior, spokesperson of Western Mindanao Command, adding, “There is new information. That’s why we added additional troops.”

Military spokesperson Col. Restitute Padilla and Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor said the government’s no ransom policy will be followed, adding the rescue operation would ensure the safety of the kidnap victims.

The troops were sent to Tawi-Tawi and Basilan, strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf Group, other sources said.

The rescue operation aimed at freeing Norweigian Kjartan Sekkingstad, 56; Canadian nationals John Ridsdel, 68, and Robert Hall, 50; and Hall’s Filipina partner Marites Flor. They were kidnapped from the Island Garden City of Samal, Davao del Norte last year.

In early April 2016, the Abu Sayyaf Group posted a video online that showed a kidnapper demanding P300 million per hostage, and gave families of the kidnap victims until April 25 to respond.

In March 2016, the group posted a 37-minute video on the Facebook page Pamantasan NG Tawheed at Jihad Filibin, which showed a hooded Abu Sayyaf member saying, “something terrible” would happen to the four victims if the ransom demands were not met by April 8, 2016. The deadline was later moved to April 25.

In November 2015, a video captured by SITE Intelligence Group showed a masked kidnapper demanding P1 billion for each hostage, or a total of P4 billion. No deadline for the ransom payment was given at the time.

Other Abu Sayyaf victims include 14 Indonesians and four Malaysians who were seized off southern Philippines and taken to Sulu weeks ago; six Filipinos; and a former Italian Catholic missionary who was seized from his pizza restaurant in southern Zamboanga Sibugay province in October 2015.

Since the early 2000s, soldiers of the Philippine government have been receiving intelligence from the US help curb Abu Sayyaf Group’s activities.

Both the US and the Philippines have included the Abu Sayyaf Group in their respective lists of terror groups that are engaged in kidnap-for-ransom, beheadings, bombings and other terror activities.

Southern Philippines is ruled by 46-year old former separatist Filipino-Muslim rebel groups engaged in peace talks with the government; a 46-year old communist group also talking peace with the government; and other Filipino-Muslim terror groups, formerly Al Qaida-linked and now Daesh-linked, that are not holding negotiations with the government.

Roman Catholic lowlanders are based in Northern Luzon and central Visayas, two of three major islands in the Philippines.