29 more Dawlah Islamiya members surrender

MAGUINDANAO --- Twenty nine followers of wanted Dawlah Islamiya leader Imam Karialan returned to the fold of law Tuesday.

The 29 Dawlah Islamiya bandits yielded through the joint intercession of municipal officials in Radjah Buayan, Maguindanao, the Army’s 33^rd Infantry Battalion and the 601^st Infantry Brigade.

They turned over their firearms officials of the 33^rd IB on Monday at the unit’s command post in Radjah Buayan and, subsequently, pledged allegiance to the government on Tuesday.

They belong to the group of Imam Karialan, a radical cleric tagged in a number of deadly bombings in central Mindanao in the past five years.

Karialan leads one of three factions in the Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Karialan’s group lost 17 members in clashes with units of the anti-terror Task Force Central early this month in the upland border of Maguindanao’s Ampatuan and Datu Hoffer municipalities.

Four soldiers were killed in the ensuing firefights that led to the fall of the Dawlah Islamiya’s three adjoining enclaves in the area.

Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division, said Wednesday it was for the backchannel efforts of local executives in the second district of Maguindanao province that the 29 Dawlah Islamiya bandits decided to surrender for them to be reintegrated into mainstream society.

More than a hundred Dawlah Islamiya members have surrendered in batches to units of the 6^th ID since 2017.