Army neutralize wanted person in Pikit

PIKIT, North Cotabato -- Government operatives shot dead North Cotabato’s most wanted person in a brief encounter early Sunday in a secluded district some six kilometers northwest of the municipal center.Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, said policemen and combatants of the 7thInfantry Battalion were to peacefully serve Datungan Gumaga a warrant for his arrest, but were forced to neutralize him when he resisted and shot them with an assault rifle.Petinglay said the police and the 7thIB learned of Gumaga’s presence in a farming enclave at the border of Pikit's adjoining Barangays Ladtingan and Batulawan from Barangay officials helping authorities locate his whereabouts. The purpose of the soldiers and policemen in going there was to convince him to yield peacefully, but he refused and engaged the raiding team, precipitating an encounter that resulted to his death,” Petinglay said.Gumaga, also known as Arnold Mamaluba and Abid, was wanted for large-scale drug trafficking, cattle theft and highway robberies. He was a known member of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.Gumaga was a follower of the equally notorious Datukan Samad, a bandit gang leader who is now detained at the Maguindanao provincial jail in Cotabato City, being prosecuted for heinous crimes.Petinglay said the Pikit municipal police immediately turned over Gumaga’s cadaver to relatives after having been examined by responding police forensic experts.