GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Five alleged members of an Islamic State-inspired local terrorist group were killed in separate encounters with government operatives Thursday morning in Polomolok and Tboli towns in South Cotabato province.
The encounters reportedly ensued during the serving of search and arrest warrants against the suspects, who were tagged as members of the Dawlah Islamiya-Maguid group or “Socsargen Katiba.”
Capt. Randy Apostol, deputy chief of the Polomolok municipal police station, said an alleged drug pusher and member of the terror group identified as Kamarudin Sante alias “Abu,” 43, was killed in a shootout around 5:25 a.m. in Purok 9, Barangay Koronadal Proper.
He said a team from their station was about to serve a search warrant against the suspect for alleged possession of illegal drugs when the latter resisted and opened fire at them.
It led to a brief firefight that resulted in the fatal wounding of Sante, who was declared dead upon arrival at the Pomolok municipal hospital, he said.
Recovered from the suspect’s possession were 10 sachets of suspected shabu valued at PHP6,860 and a .38-caliber revolver.
Apostol said Sante was a known drug pusher and among the top 10 drug personalities in the municipality.
“Based on intelligence reports, he was also an active member of the Dawlah Islamiya,” he said in an interview.
In Tboli town, four other members of the group who have standing arrest warrants for murder, direct assault and murder were killed in an encounter around 6:15 a.m. in Sitio Malo, Barangay Basag.
Maj. Irish Hezron Parangan, Tboli police station chief, identified the slain suspects as Saadin, Narjaid, Baharan and Morn, all surnamed Macabangin.
He said the shootout occurred after the suspects fired at elements from the police station and the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion who were approaching the site.
Recovered from the slain suspects were two homemade .45-caliber pistols, a homemade Carbine rifle, assorted bullets and a pack of dried marijuana leaves worth PHP300, he said.
Parangan said the four were reportedly members of the Dawlah Islamiya-Maguid group and involved in a string of terror and criminal activities in Tboli and nearby Polomolok town.
The group, which was tagged in the murder of several policemen in the province and the bomb attack in front of a lying-in clinic here in September 2019, had reportedly pledged support to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS. (PNA)
