Islamic school teacher killed in Cotabato ambush

COTABATO CITY — Gunmen killed an Islamic school teacher in an ambush in Barangay Inug-ug, Pikit, Cotabato, on Wednesday afternoon, December 18, exactly two weeks after two of his students were killed in a similar attack in the same area.

Officials of the Pikit Municipal Police Station and the Cotabato Provincial Police Office separately told reporters on Thursday, December 19, that Yasser Mama Abdullah, a teacher in the Noorul Eilm Academy in Pikit, was riding his motorcycle on his way home from school when he was attacked by gunmen in Baranbay Inug-ug, killing him on the spot.

The perpetrators managed to escape before responding volunteer community watchmen and barangay officials could reach the scene.

Abdullah was killed just two weeks after two of his students, Rafael Abu Indong and Muslimin Kamir Nanalong, both Grade 11 students in Noorul Eilm Academy, were killed in a similar atrocity in the same barangay.

Indong and Nanalong were riding a motorcycle on their way to school when they were attacked by gunmen positioned along a road in Barangay Inug-ug. They also both died instantly from multiple bullet wounds sustained in the attack.

Investigators in the Pikit police force, local executives and officials of Army units in Pikit under the 602nd Infantry Brigade are trying to determine if the two incidents are related.

Local officials had told reporters that Abdullah, besides his teaching work, also served as barangay treasurer in nearby Macabual in Tugunan, a newly-created town under the Bangsamoro region, but is inside the core territory of Cotabato, a component province of Administrative Region 12.