COTABATO CITY — A volunteer community watchman and a villager got killed, while three others were badly wounded in a gun attack on Monday night in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur.
Brig. Gen. Romeo J. Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Tuesday that Hassen L. Kumamo, a member of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team of the Shariff Aguak municipal government, and Esmail P. Singh both died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in the attack.
The incident left Shariff Aguak residents, Ali K.Amerudin, Anwar D. Banalan, and Mohammad A. Husain, badly wounded.
Mr. Macapaz said investigators and intelligence agents of the Shariff Aguak Municipal Police Station and the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office are certain that it was Mr. Kumamo who was the target of the attack, perpetrated by motorcycle-riding gunmen.
Local executives and police probers who responded to the incident had told reporters that Mr. Kumamo, who was on-duty then, and Mr. Singh were together along a stretch of the highway in Barangay Labu-Labu when motorcycle-riding gunmen came close and opened fire.
The gunmen also repeatedly shot Mr. Amerudin, Mr. Banalan and Mr. Husain, who were with Mr. Kumamo and Mr. Singh, before they drove away. All three of them are now confined in a hospital. — John Felix M. Unson
