Mahmud bin Ahmad | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1978-09-25)25 September 1978 Batu Caves, Gombak District, Selangor, Malaysia |
| Died | 7 June 2017(2017-06-07) (aged 38) Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, Philippines |
Mahmud bin Ahmad, known asAbu Handzalah (25 September 1978 – 7 June 2017), was aMalaysian professor of Islamic law and a senior Islamic militant withAbu Sayyaf in thePhilippines.
He was born inBatu Caves, Gombak District, Selangor.
In the 1990s he travelled to Pakistan to study, where he obtained two bachelor's degrees from theInternational Islamic University, Islamabad. In the late 1990s he is said to have attended anAl-Qaeda training camp inAfghanistan. He has a master's degree from theInternational Islamic University Malaysia and a doctoral degree from theUniversity of Malaya. At the University of Malaya he was a senior lecturer in the Department of Aqidah and Islamic Thought in the Academy of Islamic Studies.[1]
According to fellow teachers at the University of Malaya, in late 2013 he began openly expressing his views aboutjihad. He wrote a journal titled "Faith of the Mujahidin" and founded a religious school called Open Tahfiz Centre.[2]
In March 2014, he arranged for at least four Malaysians to travel toSyria to join theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
He has been on the Malaysian most wanted list since he travelled to the Philippines in July 2014.[3]
According to the head of the Philippine Armed Forces, GeneralEduardo Año, he was killed on 7 June 2017 along with 13 militants during theBattle of Marawi in the Philippines.[4][5] It was alleged Mahmud funnelled over 30 million pesos from the Islamic State to gain firearms, food and other supplies to finance the militants' siege on Marawi. Malaysian police chiefKhalid Abu Bakar said he believed Mahmud is still alive.[6]