COTABATO CITY — Four more members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were killed in another gunfight with companions in the same group in Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on Monday morning.
The incident was preceded by the encounter on Saturday in Pikit, Cotabato between the groups of MILF members Sindato Karim, who is chairman of Barangay Lagunde in the municipality, and Basit Nando. Two companions of Karim were killed in the ensuing clash that also left three followers of Nando dead.
Related Stories
Col. Roel Sermese, Maguindanao del Sur provincial police director, confirmed on Tuesday that four members of the MILF were killed as the groups of Hamza Sangki Kindo and Kadafy Bundula, armed with unlicensed assault rifles, traded shots in Barangay Kapinpilan in Ampatuan, sending innocent villagers running for their lives.
The two groups are reportedly squabbling for control of strategic swaths of arable lands in Barangay Kapinpilan.
Senior members of the Ampatuan municipal police force told reporters the fatalities in the hostilities in Barangay Kapinpilan, Norman Sabpa, Abie Kadil, Joharie Akan, Darex Bundula and Misuari Guiamal, died on the spot from multiple bullet wounds.
Reports reaching the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in nearby Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte stated that villagers around the areas where the groups of Kindo and Bundula clashed had relocated to safe areas for fear of getting trapped in the crossfire.
Major Gen. Alex Rillera, 6th ID’s commander, has ordered the 601st Infantry Brigade, covering Ampatuan and nearby towns, to initiate measures to prevent a repeat of Monday’s encounter between the groups of Kindo and Bundula.
Rillera and Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office, had separately urged the MILF leadership, the joint government-MILF ceasefire committee and the local government unit of Ampatuan to settle the conflict involving Kindo and Bundula.