GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 15 March) – Joint operatives arrested an alleged member of a local terrorist group in an operation on Wednesday night in an outskirt village in Polomolok town, South Cotabato province.
In its report on Friday to Brig. Gen. Eliseo Tam Rasco, regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-12, the Polomolok municipal police station said suspect Aladin Mamo, 23, was nabbed in a raid around 8:05 p.m. in Purok 4 of Sitio Bio, Barangay Lapu.
Lt. Col. Samuel Cadungon, Polomolok police chief, said the suspect was a member of Sarangani-based terror group Ansar Al-Khilafa Philippines (AKP) and involved in a string of attacks in the area these past years.
“He was among the remnants of the group who were based in Polomolok,” the police official said.
Cadungon said the operation mainly targeted Mamo’s brother Rassel, who has a standing warrant of arrest for robbery with violence and intimidation against person issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 63 in Polomolok.
The operating team was composed of elements from the Regional Intelligence Division-12, Military Intelligence Group-23, Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion and Polomolok municipal police station.
But he said Rassel, who was also tagged as a member of the AKP, managed to escape as the operatives were approaching the area.
Cadungon said Aladin, who was later cornered by the team, was caught in possession of a hand grenade.
The suspect, who is currently detained at the Polomolok municipal police station lock-up, will be charged with violation of Republic Act 9516 (the law against illegal manufacture, sales, possession of firearms and explosives) before the provincial prosecutor’s office, he said.
AKP, which was part of the local network of the Islamic State-inspired Maute Group and among the top threat groups being monitored by the PRO-12, had been tagged as behind several bombing incidents here and in Sarangani Province.
Cadungon added that the Mamo brothers were under the command of fugitive AKP leader Jeffrey Nilong, who was among those charged over the bomb attack in front of a lying-in clinic here in September last year. (MindaNews)