11 more terrorists bolt from outlawed BIFF
Mindanao Peace Process • 06:15 AM Sun Aug 15, 2021
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By:
John M. Unson
Army officials inspect the firearms turned in by Commander Mulawin and his 10 followers. (From 33rd IB)
COTABATO CITY --- Another bloc of local terrorists surrendered in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao Friday, two days after the arrest of a Dawlah Islamiya leader while on his way to South Cotabato province.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said Saturday Commander Mulawin and his 10 followers yielded through the efforts of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion and the 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade.
Mulawin and his men, known for aliases Rahib, Nasrullah, Salahuddin, Esmail, Rahim, Haron, Tapa, One Eye, Naser and Kasim, belonged to the Karialan faction in the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or BIFF.
“We can’t reveal their complete names pending their relocation to safe areas. The BIFF is known for its impunity on members who have returned to the fold of law. It also persecutes relatives of those who have bolted from the group,” Uy said.
The BIFF, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is tagged in all deadly bombings in central Mindanao since 2014.
More than a hundred members of the BIFF, the Ansa’r Khilafa Philippines and the notorious Al-Khobar extortion gang, which are both Dawlah Islamiya subgroups, have surrendered to units of the 6th ID in the past eight months.
Mulawin’s group turned over to the 33rd IB, via local officials in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao, assorted firearms, including a .30 caliber Garand rifle, an M16 rifle, an M14 rifle, a .45 caliber pistol, a machine pistol, improvised explosive devices and a 60 millimeter mortar with two live explosive projectiles.
“Credit for their surrender has to go partly to the barangay and municipal officials in Shariff Aguak who helped workout their surrender via backchannel dialogues,” Uy said.
Mulawin and his followers renounced on Friday their membership with BIFF at the headquarters of the 33rd IB in Radjah Buayan town in Maguindanao exactly two days after the arrest of Khalid Andalani Kalaing in nearby Barangay Labu-Labu, Shariff Aguak.
Kalaing is a senior official of the Maguid faction in the Dawlah Islamiya, also an ISIS-inspired group.
He was intercepted by a joint Army-police team in a checkpoint in Barangay Labu-Labu while on board a pick-up truck bound for South Cotabato.
Kalaing is wanted for acts of terror and vehicle theft.
He is now clamped down in a detention facility of the Maguindanao provincial police command.