1 killed, 6 hurt in North Cotabato 'rido'

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — A gunman was killed while six others were wounded in a series of clashes Wednesday between two rival clans in Pikit, North Cotabato.

The feuding families, one led by Kusain Saligan and the other by Hadji Nasser and a relative identified only as Madz, are both armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers.

They figured in running gunfights Wednesday afternoon at the boundary of Pikit's adjoining Barangays Kabasalan, Pikit and Darampua in Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao.

The police said a gunman from one of the two groups was killed in the initial exchange of gunfire.

Six more were wounded in the encounter, according to local officials and members of the Islamic religious community in Pikit.

The rival groups are fighting for control of strategic patches of arable land in Barangay Kabasalan.

Superintendent Aldrin Gonzalez, spokesman of the Police Regional Office-12, said the hostilities displaced 302 villagers, forced to relocate to safer areas for fear of getting trapped in the crossfire.

Gonzalez said the Pikit municipal police and members of the local peace and order council are now trying to resolve peacefully the “rido,” or clan, involving the two groups.