Kato's men raid Army detachment in Maguindanao

COTABATO City, Philippines - Soldiers foiled Monday night an attempt by followers of renegade cleric Ameril Umrah Kato to take over a roadside Army detachment in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.

Col. Edgar Gonzales, commander of the Army’s 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade, said members of Kato’s self-styled Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) surrounded and fired at the detachment in Barangay Pagatin in Datu Piang using assault rifles and shoulder-fire grenades.

The soldiers inside the detachment managed to return fire, preventing the BIFM bandits to advance into their position.

The attack sent hundreds of villagers running for their lives.

“Fortunately, not one of the soldiers there, or any of the people residing in the surroundings was killed or wounded in the encounter. The incident triggered panic among villagers there,” Gonzales said.

Local officials have called on the police to file criminal charges against the BIFM bandits that pulled off the attack.

Gonzales said Army intelligence operatives were still trying to determine the identities of the attackers.

“They immediately scampered away after sensing that they have not inflicted casualties on the soldiers they subjected to heavy fire,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said the villagers have confirmed that the gunmen were members of the BIFM, which raided and plundered several farming villages in a spate of attacks in August last year.

The BIFM is led by the foreign-trained preacher Kato, a former senior commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who was booted out for serious infractions of the MILF’s revolutionary rules.