Another Indian moneylender killed in Central Mindanao

COTABATO CITY — Another Indian moneylender was shot dead on Sunday, November 2, in Central Mindanao, marking the fifth such killing in the region since 2022.

The victim, Jagmeet Singh, was collecting payment for loans from villagers along a highway in Sitio Datu Faisal in Barangay Limbo in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte, when one of three men who approached him from behind shot him with a pistol in the head, killing him instantly.

Officials from the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police Station and the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Police Office told reporters on Monday, November 3, that Singh’s assailants escaped before responding community volunteer watchmen and barangay officials could reach the scene.

The attackers also took Singh’s sling bag containing his cash collections as they fled.

Traditional Moro community leaders told reporters gunmen who killed Singh is known by their aliases Monib and Sattar. One is a known hired killer and is also involved in large-scale trafficking of shabu and marijuana.

Four other Indian moneylenders were killed in separate gun attacks in the past three years in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte and in far-flung towns in Maguindanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, in a seaside municipality in Sultan Kudarat, in Midsayap, Cotabato and in Koronadal City, all in Region 12.

Ranking officials of the business communities in BARMM, including lawyer-entrepreneur Ronald Hallid Torres, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council, have separately called on the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, which has intelligence units in Central Mindanao, to cooperate in identifying the killers of Singh for prosecution.

"These killings of Indian moneylenders can badly affect our efforts of boosting the investment climate in the Bangsamoro towns in mainland Mindanao," Torres, also president of the multi-sector Regional Advisory Group of PRO-BAR, said.

PRO-BAR director Police Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman said investigators from the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Police, intelligence agents from various units under his office, and local officials are working together to bring closure to Singh’s brutal killing.

Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Tucao Mastura and Vice Gov. Marshall Sinsuat have separately pledged their support for PRO-BAR’s ongoing investigation into the incident.