BIFF gunmen execute two Teduray farmers in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO --- Militants executed gangland style two ethnic Tedurays and wounded two soldiers in separate attacks hours before the bombing Sunday night in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat.A 16-year-old student, John Mark Luda, was killed and more than 10 others were hurt when a powerful blast ripped through a commercial hub in Isulan, capital town of Sultan Kudarat, at past 7and00 p.m. Sunday.The attacks earlier Sunday by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in the second district of Maguindanao began with the abduction and subsequent execution of two Teduray farmers, Nestor Daingan and Rene Usman, in a hinterland spot in Datu Hofer town in Maguindanao.They were on their way to their farms from an upland Teduray dwelling enclave when BIFF bandits led by Jai Abubakar and Boy Sarong flagged them down, hogtied them both and eventually killed them one after another using assault rifles after an hour-long captivity.Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division said Monday military intelligence agents are now helping the police build corresponding criminal cases against the killers of the duo.Abubakar and Sarong are wanted for leading attacks on Teduray villages last year.The two BIFF commanders and their followers then burned more than a dozen houses after owners fled to safer areas and carted away farm animals left by evacuees.The BIFF operates in the fashion of the Islamic State and its leaders are mostly radical clerics eloquent in stoking hatred to non-Muslims using poverty and underdevelopment as talking points.The brutal murder of the helpless Daingan and Usman preceded the BIFF’s harassments of three detachments in nearby Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao.Two soldiers, 1Lt. Rey-Jay Ramos and his subordinate, Sgt. Jerry Nicor, were wounded preventing gunmen from breaching through the defense perimeters of their detachment.Local residents said four BIFF bandits, identified only as Kemzar, Norodin, Bansil and Uruk, were wounded in the ensuing gunfight.Captain Arvin Encinas, public affairs officer of 6thID, said security has been tightened in public places in central Mindanao that are vulnerable to BIFF bomb attacks.The group is known for attacking civilians to avenge the deaths of members killed in encounters with government forces.Units of 6thID killed more than 30 BIFF bandits in encounters in far-flung Maguindanao towns in the past four months.The bombing on Sunday night in Isulan happened just four days after BIFF members set off an improvised explosive device in Barangay Kalawag in the same town, killing three and hurting more than30 others.The 6thID and the Police Regional Office-12 both blamed the BIFF for the two IED attacks.