6th ID, PRO-12 anticipating Dawlah retaliations
Peace and Order • 13:00 PM Sat Nov 14, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
A Islamic State of Iraq and Syria banner found in the encounter scene. (Photo from PRO-12)
KORONADAL CITY - Authorities are guarding against possible attacks by terrorists to avenge the deaths of six members of the Dawlah Islamiya in a brief clash in Polomolok town Friday.
One of fatalities, Arafat Pataron Bulacon, is a senior leader of the Ansa’r Al-Khilafa Philippines, a group under the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya, which operates in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Members of the Police Regional Office-12 and the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion under the 601st Infantry Brigade were to serve warrants for the arrest of Bulacon in Barangay Koronadal Proper in Polomolok, South Cotabato but neutralized him and his cohorts instead when resisted.
Bulacon is wanted for a deadly bomb attack in General Santos City in 2018 and for other heinous offenses.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and the director of PRO-12, Police Brig. Gen. Michael John Dubria, separately announced Saturday that intelligence units have been mobilized to monitor possible retaliations by the Dawlah Islamiya for its loss of Bulacon and his five cohorts.
The Dawlah Islamiya has a reputation for bombing public places and overland conveyances, such as buses and jeepneys, to avenge the deaths of members in clashes with the police and the military.
“We are not taking chances. The group lost a key member in the encounter in Polomolok last Friday,” Uy told reporters via online Messenger Saturday.
Also killed by the joint police-Army team in Friday’s encounter in Barangay Koronadal Proper were Bulacon’s henchmen named Rushdy Sadalao and the relatives Norman, Arsad, Abdulbayan and Mananding, all surnamed Marot.
The PRO-12 personnel involved in the law-enforcement operation that went haywire and resulted in the death of Bulacon and companions belong to the regional police’s elite 4th Special Action Battalion.
Dubria said police forensic experts found beside the cadavers of the slain terrorists assorted firearms, an improvised explosive device and an ISIS flag.
“There is now a joint police-Army effort to locate their companions in Polomolok with the help of local officials and vigilant residents,” Uy said.