COTABATO CITY — Two individuals were killed in separate gun attacks in adjoining areas of the Bangsamoro region within just 10 hours, despite a ban on the unauthorized carrying of firearms by the Commission on Elections.
The first to die in the two attacks was Zulkarnain Pansar Mustapha, who was shot dead on Sunday night, January 12, while standing along a highway in Barangay Limbo, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte.
Barangay Limbo is only about six kilometers north of Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro region.
Officials of the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police Station told reporters on Monday, January 13, that Mustapha, a resident of Barangay Bagua in Cotabato City, died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in the attack.
Barangay officials in Limbo and responding police officers told reporters that Mustapha’s assailants quickly fled the scene and are now the subject of an extensive manhunt.
The second fatality is a woman, Norhaya Samo Etoh, killed in an ambush in Kakar area in Barangay Poblacion 8 in Cotabato City on Monday morning.
She was riding her motorcycle when two men armed with pistols, positioned along the route, shot her repeatedly in the head and escaped using a getaway motorcycle amid the commotion triggered by the gunshots that reverberated through the surroundings.
Col. Jibin Bongcayao, director of the Cotabato City Police Office, said barangay officials in Poblacion 8 are helping investigators in the Cotabato Police Station 2 identify the killers of Etoh.
The separate shooting incidents that left Mustapha and Etoh dead happened after the start at midnight Friday of the Comelec’s nationwide restriction on unauthorized carrying of firearms as part of its security measures meant to ensure safe elections in May 2025.