Another Hataman political supporter wounded in Zamboanga gun attack

COTABATO CITY --- Another staunch political supporter of reelectionist Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Mujiv Hataman was hurt in daring gun attack in Zamboanga City on Thursday.Radio reports on Friday morning said the victim, Ahmad Alip Nanoh, former mayor of Pangutaran town in the hostile Sulu island province, was driving his Toyota pick-up truck, with license plates JBW 925, when he was attacked and wounded by a gunman armed with a pistol.Sources from ARMM’s regional police office in Camp S.K. Pendatun in Parang town in Maguindanao on Friday said Nanoh is one of Hataman’s campaign managers in Sulu, a politically-troubled island province, also known throughout the world as a sanctuary of the extremist Abu Sayyaf.Members of the Abu Sayyaf are feared for their practice of decapitating captives snatched from nearby provinces and from islands in Malaysia if ransom demands are not met. He is a staunch political supporter of Gov. Hataman,” a senior regional police official told reporters, referring to the injured Nanoh.The attempt to kill Nanoh was preceded by last January’s near fatal ambush also in Zamboanga City of Mayor Jasper Que of Bongao town in Tawi-Tawi, also a component province of ARMM.Que was the first ever local executive in Tawi-Tawi to endorse publicly Hataman’s reelection bid after the governor filed his certificate of candidacy in Cotabato City last October 2015.Que has since been telling reporters he would campaign for Hataman in all of the barangays in Bongao, which has more than 48,000 registered voters.Que has just arrived at the airport in Zamboanga City and was on his way to his residence there on board his vehicle when one of two men riding a motorcycle together, trailing behind, opened fire with an automatic weapon while the mayor’s driver was maneuvering through an intersection.The bullets pierced through Que’s green Isuzu Highlander, hitting him in the lower torso, causing his two-week confinement in a hospital.