7 cops, soldier hurt in clash with gunmen in Sulu

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Seven policemen and a soldier got hurt in a bungled attempt to arrest Saturday in Maimbung town in Sulu a former vice mayor long wanted for heinous criminal offenses.

The Sulu Provincial Police Office, in a report to Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region here, said soldiers and policemen were to serve former Maimbung Vice Mayor Pando Mudjasan warrants of arrest for various cases pending in different courts but he and his followers, armed with assault rifles resisted, provoking a gunfight.

Mudjasan’s group opened fire first at the joint Army-police team approaching their location in Barangay Bualo Lipid in Maimbung.

Seven policemen, four of them from a mobile force company of the Sulu PPO, were wounded in the ensuing encounter, according to reports reaching the headquarters of PRO-BAR.

Mudjasan’s group opened fire first at the joint Army-police team approaching their location in Barangay Bualo Lipid in Maimbung.

Army and police reinforcements have launched a search for the wanted former vice mayor and his followers who reportedly scampered away carrying wounded companions when they sensed they were close to getting surrounded by advancing government forces.