Dawlah bomb-maker arrested in Cotabato town

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Authorities arrested Tuesday in President Roxas, Cotabato a wanted bomb-maker of the Dawlah Islamiya wanted for deadly bombings in central Mindanao.

Brig. Gen. Roy Galido, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and Brig. Gen. Jamili Macaraeg, director of the Police Regional Office-12, separately confirmed Wednesday the arrest of the suspect, Jordan Akmad, now detained.

Local officials in the adjoining Maguindanao and Cotabato provinces told reporters Wednesday Akmad belongs to the Hassan faction of the Dawlah Islamiya, tagged in deadly bombings in central Mindanao since 2014.

Galido said personnel of the 602nd Brigade, the 90th and 72nd Infantry Battalions and policemen from units of PRO-12 cornered Akmad in his hideout in Barangay Salat in President Roxas, a hinterland town in Cotabato, before dawn Tuesday.

Akmad voluntarily turned himself in when policemen showed him copies of warrants for his arrest in connection with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder cases pending in different courts in Mindanao.

He was also implicated in recent bus bombings in the neighboring Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato provinces.

The Dawlah Islamiya and its two allies, the Al-Khobar and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, have a reputation for bombing public conveyances and business establishments whose owners refuse to pay “protection money” on a monthly basis.