ZAMBOANGA CITY - The military is validating reports that a Malaysian fishing vessel skipper and two crew members were abducted off Semporna, Malaysia on Saturday.

Colonel Rodrigo Gregorio, spokesperson of the Joint Task Group Sulu, said they are still validating the reported abduction with their Malaysian counterparts.

"We received an initial report informing us that an incident of this nature occurred but could not confirm this yet. Our units in Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) are now seeking to validate the info," Gregorio said.

Sources told ABS-CBN News that at least seven armed men barged into the fishing vessel off Semporna and snatched the skipper of the vessel and his two crew members at gun point.

The abductors immediately left on board a motorized pump boat, allegedly speeding towards southern Philippines.

Authorities did not directly link the kidnapping to the Abu Sayyaf but Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi said a "kidnap-for-ransom" group was responsible.

"The kidnap-for-ransom group operates near the southern Philippines, near Malaysian islands, and although the authorities monitor the waters closely, this group moves under the radar," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

Zahid added that the three people kidnapped were not Malaysian citizens but permanent residents.

In May, the Abu Sayyaf released 14 Indonesian sailors who had been kidnapped in two high-seas raids, attacks that prompted Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines to launch joint patrols.

In July, Malaysian police said five Malaysian tugboat crew were abducted by Abu Sayyaf off the coast of Sabah.

The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of a few hundred Islamist militants, formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, that has earned millions of dollars from kidnappings-for-ransom.

READ: Five things to know about the Abu Sayyaf

Although its leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, analysts say they are mainly focused on lucrative kidnappings.

In April and June the group beheaded two Canadian tourists after ransom demands were not met, and a Malaysian man was beheaded last year.

Malaysian security forces in Sabah have been on high alert and on the lookout for militants fleeing the southern Philippines after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the military in August to ramp up its offensive against the extremist group. - with Agence France-Presse