Wanted MILF leader's death confirmed

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines  – Police authorities have confirmed the death of a fugitive leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), wanted for a spate of kidnappings in the Zamboanga Peninsula.

Director Felicisimo Khu, chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operation for Western Mindanao, said wanted rebel leader Abdulgani Abdusalam, alias Waning, died last Nov. 6 due to bullet wounds in the thighs.

Khu said it took them days to convince an imam or Muslim priest, a relative of Abdusalam who officiated in the burial ritual, to officially declare the rebel leader’s death

Khu said the seventh wife of Abdusalam also confirmed the death of her husband.

He said Abdusalam was buried on the night of Nov. 7 on Maubuh Island off this city.

According to the imam, Abdusalam’s wife sought his help for the burial and brought him to Sitio Kalang, Barangay Sangali this city.

Combined police and military forces tried to serve arrest warrants for kidnapping suspects led by Abdusalam in Payao town in Zamboanga Sibugay last Oct. 15, but the troopers were ambushed, wounding four of them.

This prompted the military to launch a full military operation that flushed out Abdusalam and his followers from their camp, which the troopers eventually overran on Oct. 27.

No one was arrested and no body was recovered when the troopers stormed the camp. Traces of blood though were found there, indicating that some of Abdusalam’s henchmen could have been wounded but managed to escape.