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John Unson - Philstar.com
April 16, 2026 | 7:05pm
The 23-year-old Salman Alsad Najirun is now in the custody of the Lamitan City Police Station in Basilan province in the Bangsamoro region.
Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policemen arrested on Thursday morning, April 16, in Lamitan City in Basilan the second of the two men tagged in the brutal killing of a Lebanese businessman and his Filipino wife in a gun attack in Zamboanga City on Friday last week.
Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters at noon Thursday that the 23-year-old Salman Alsad Najirun was arrested by policemen in Sitio Libi, Barangay Bulanting after villagers and local executives reported his presence in the area.
Najirun and an accomplice, Jamil Cotamora Binasing, 21, killed in a gun attack last week the Lebanese national Fahed Hamdan and his Filipino spouse, Annora, inside their printing press and internet shop along Pilar Street in Zamboanga City last week.
Binasing was arrested last Monday by policemen, municipal and barangay officials in his grandmother’s house in Barangay Subaan in Lantawan, Basilan.
He had confessed, in the presence of police officials and Zamboanga City Mayor Khymer Adan Olaso, to his having killed the couple with a pistol, during a press briefing immediately after his arrest.
De Guzman said a team from the Lamitan City Police Station, led by their chief, Lt. Col. Elmer Solon, had easily located Najirun in Sitio Libi in Barangay Bulanting with the help of local executives in Lamitan City.
“It was for the help of local executives and traditional community leaders in Basilan that our police units in the province managed to locate them one after another,” De Guzman said.
Officials of the Basilan Provincial Police Office will immediately turn over Najirun to the Zamboanga City Police Office, according to De Guzman.
Najirun and Binasing had separately told police officials in Basilan that they were hired by the owner of a roadside carwash establishment in Zamboanga City to kill the couple.
“These two individuals shall soon have their day in court,” De Guzman said.
De Guzman said they are grateful to the local government units in Lamitan City and Lantawan and to the governor of the province, Mujiv Hataman, for having supported the manhunt operations of their units that resulted in the duo’s arrest.
