4 dead, cop wounded as Pikit wanted persons resist arrest

COTABATO CITY - Four Moro men were killed while a policeman was wounded in a bungled attempt to serve two persons warrants of arrest in Pikit town in Cotabato province Saturday.

Lt. Col. John Miridel Calinga, chief of the Pikit municipal police, identified the fatalities as Lando Dianalan, Baganian Alimao, Faisal Sanday and Norman Samsudin, who died on the spot from gunshot wounds.

Calinga said the four men were with Abdullah Kordotoy and Jonathan Kadalem, both wanted for different attempted murder cases pending in the Regional Trial Court Branch 24 in Cotabato province.

Kordotoy and Kadalem reportedly opened fire at policemen and soldiers approaching their hideout in Barangay Macabual in Pikit to serve them warrants for their arrest, provoking a gunfight that left Dianalan, Alimao, Sanday and Samsudin dead.

Cpl. Eric Saltin Buslayan of the 45th Special Action Company of the police’s elite Special Action Force was wounded in the ensuing gunfight.

Kordotoy and Kadalem managed to escape, leaving their dead companions behind.

Calinga said police forensic experts found two M16 assault rifles and a shotgun near the cadavers of the duo’s slain companions.

Pikit has been hitting the news for months now owing to the wanton killings in the area since last year.

No fewer than 40 people had been killed in gun attacks in different barangays in the municipality during the period.

A battalion of SAF policemen from the Police Regional Office 11 in Davao City was deployed just last month in Pikit to help the local police and units of the Army’s 602^nd Infantry Brigade maintain law and order in the municipality.