MILF leader shot dead in Pikit

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Unidentified men shot dead with assault rifles a ranking, foreign-trained leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Pikit, North Cotabato yesterday, in what is feared to trigger more vendetta killings in the area.

Col. Franklin del Prado, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the victim, Abu Hashim, deputy chief for operations of the MILF’s 105th Base Command, was on his way home on board a motorcycle when he was attacked along a farm-to-market road in Barangay Inug-ug, Pikit town.

Sources in Pikit’s municipal peace and order council said Hashim was at odds with other local MILF commanders.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said they are now investigating the incident to help local authorities identify Hashim’s killers and the real motive behind the attack.

Del Prado said there were witnesses to the killing, but they still refused to provide authorities with information.

Kabalu said the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion, which has jurisdiction over Pikit and surrounding towns, has been placed under full alert to prevent retaliations by Hashim’s relatives.

Two feuding MILF commanders in Guindulungan, Maguindanao recently engaged in sporadic encounters that forced more than 500 families to flee their homes.

The feuding factions, led by Commanders Talyo and Labyo, are squabbling for control of strategic patches of land in two interior barangays in Guindulungan town.