Jolo hostages in the hands of media-savvy Abu Sayyaf leader

This undated image grab taken on October 13, 2015 from a video uploaded on YouTube shows gunmen standing behind three foreign men (not pictured) and a Filipina (not pictured) who were kidnapped last month in the southern Philippines. - AFP PHOTO / YOUTUBE

MANILA: Militants holding two Canadians, a Norwegian and a Filipina as hostages in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao are believed to be led by a college-educated, social media-savvy fellow fanatic keen on transforming the Abu Sayyaf extremist group from a band of criminals into a bona fide Islamist movement.

The group is named after a village in Patikul town, in Sulu province - 1,400km south of the capital Manila - where it draws most of its fighters. It is led by Hatib Sawadjaan, whom the military believes commands at least 300 men.