PNP creates task force to combat terrorism

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Leandro Mendoza has created an anti-terrorist unit within the police force to be called Task Force Sanglahi (One Race).

Mendoza said the task force was set up in response to President Arroyo’s call for all-out war against terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Task Force Sanglahi will be coordinating with anti-terrorism agencies in the US and other countries, he added.

Mendoza said the task force will be comprised of personnel from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Intelligence Group.

They will be tapped to gather evidence and information to enable police to arrest terrorists who are using the Philippines as a base of operations, he added.

Officials of Task Force Sanglahi said they have already started investigating the list of organizations which are suspected of being used as fronts by groups affiliated with Islamic militant Osama bin Laden.

The Armed Forces has confirmed bin Laden’s links in the country following the arrest of Pakistani Abdul Hakin Murad in Manila in January 1995.

Murad was arrested after police foiled his group’s attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II, who was then visiting the Philippines.

Police intelligence officials said Murad was a member of a terrorist cell operating in the Philippines under the command of another Pakistani, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who is now jailed in the US.

Ramzi evaded arrest in the Philippines but was later caught in Pakistan and later extradited to the US.

He was tried and convicted for his participation in the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York City in 1995.