1 dead, 2 hurt as BIFM attacks NCotabato town
COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Bandits belonging to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement killed a villager and wounded two government combatants, attacking an Army checkpoint in Pikit, North Cotabato Wednesday night.
The incident was preceded by the death on Tuesday of a four-year-old girl, Asnayra Usman, who, along with her parents, were inside a makeshift shelter in an evacuation site in Datu Saudi, Maguindanao when unidentified gunmen shot the site with long-range weapons.
Inspector Elias Dandan, chief of the Pikit municipal police, said the BIFM gang members were traversing Pikit, en route to the nearby Malitubog-Maridagao area, when they spotted a team of soldiers and militiamen manning a checkpoint in Barangay Inog-og and opened fire at the government troops.
A militiaman named Rafael Palomar, 29, and a soldier, Pfc. Jose Morales, of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion, were wounded in the ensuing firefight.
Police and Army reinforcements managed to drive the bandits away and wounded seven of them, according to barangay folks.
The fleeing rebels opened fire at houses, killing a civilian named Anwer Langalin, who died while being treated of gunshot wounds in a hospital at the town proper of Pikit.
The incident came at the heels of Monday’s sightings of BIFM bandits at marshlands at the border of North Cotabato’s adjoining Aleosan and Pikit towns.
Inspector Carl Jason Baynosa of the 2nd Maneuver Company of the Regional Public Safety Battalion based in North Cotabato told reporters that the sightings of BIFM bandits forced villagers to evacuate.
The mayor of Pikit, Datu Sumulong Sultan, has confirmed the evacuations, but assured the public that local officials are working with the police, the military and with local commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in preventing the bandits from closing in.
Bai Ali Endaila, secretary-general of Kawagib, a Moro human rights group, has called on the Commission on Human Rights to investigate the circulating stories that soldiers could be responsible for the shooting of an evacuation site in Datu Unsay that left a four-year-old child dead and his 33-year-old father wounded.
The victims were among dozens housed in makeshift shelters at an evacuation site near an Islamic school in Barangay Salbo in Datu Saudi.
Col. Prudencio Asto, public affairs chief of the 6th ID, said it is unlikely for soldiers to shoot evacuation sites by accident owing to their careful plotting of their movements based on map and satellite positioning calculations.
“Just the same we shall have that issue investigated. Let’s us not discount the reality, in the meantime, that these bandits have long-range sniping rifles. Soldiers, in fact recovered last week two Barret caliber .50 sniping rifles from their abandoned hideout not far from Datu Unsay,” Asto said.
A police officer and three civilian commuters were slightly injured early Wednesday when BIFM bandits set off a roadside bomb along a thoroughfare linking the provincial police headquarters to the town proper of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.
Army and police bomb disposal experts found fragments of a 105 Howitzer cannon round and pieces of an improvised contraption designed to detonate the explosive using a mobile phone.[]
The incident was preceded by the death on Tuesday of a four-year-old girl, Asnayra Usman, who, along with her parents, were inside a makeshift shelter in an evacuation site in Datu Saudi, Maguindanao when unidentified gunmen shot the site with long-range weapons.
Inspector Elias Dandan, chief of the Pikit municipal police, said the BIFM gang members were traversing Pikit, en route to the nearby Malitubog-Maridagao area, when they spotted a team of soldiers and militiamen manning a checkpoint in Barangay Inog-og and opened fire at the government troops.
A militiaman named Rafael Palomar, 29, and a soldier, Pfc. Jose Morales, of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion, were wounded in the ensuing firefight.
Police and Army reinforcements managed to drive the bandits away and wounded seven of them, according to barangay folks.
The fleeing rebels opened fire at houses, killing a civilian named Anwer Langalin, who died while being treated of gunshot wounds in a hospital at the town proper of Pikit.
The incident came at the heels of Monday’s sightings of BIFM bandits at marshlands at the border of North Cotabato’s adjoining Aleosan and Pikit towns.
Inspector Carl Jason Baynosa of the 2nd Maneuver Company of the Regional Public Safety Battalion based in North Cotabato told reporters that the sightings of BIFM bandits forced villagers to evacuate.
The mayor of Pikit, Datu Sumulong Sultan, has confirmed the evacuations, but assured the public that local officials are working with the police, the military and with local commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in preventing the bandits from closing in.
Bai Ali Endaila, secretary-general of Kawagib, a Moro human rights group, has called on the Commission on Human Rights to investigate the circulating stories that soldiers could be responsible for the shooting of an evacuation site in Datu Unsay that left a four-year-old child dead and his 33-year-old father wounded.
The victims were among dozens housed in makeshift shelters at an evacuation site near an Islamic school in Barangay Salbo in Datu Saudi.
Col. Prudencio Asto, public affairs chief of the 6th ID, said it is unlikely for soldiers to shoot evacuation sites by accident owing to their careful plotting of their movements based on map and satellite positioning calculations.
“Just the same we shall have that issue investigated. Let’s us not discount the reality, in the meantime, that these bandits have long-range sniping rifles. Soldiers, in fact recovered last week two Barret caliber .50 sniping rifles from their abandoned hideout not far from Datu Unsay,” Asto said.
A police officer and three civilian commuters were slightly injured early Wednesday when BIFM bandits set off a roadside bomb along a thoroughfare linking the provincial police headquarters to the town proper of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.
Army and police bomb disposal experts found fragments of a 105 Howitzer cannon round and pieces of an improvised contraption designed to detonate the explosive using a mobile phone.[]
By: John Felix Miciano Unson journjohn@gmail.com
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