Soldiers recover rifles, IEDs left by terrorists behind Datu Paglas attack
MAGUINDANAO --- The military found two M16 rifles and a dozen improvised explosive devices along the escape route of the terrorists who stormed the public market in Datu Paglas town Saturday.
Brig. Gen. Roy Galido of the Army’s 601st Brigade said Tuesday soldiers running after members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who occupied and public market in Datu Paglas are now in custody of the two assault rifles and IEDs left along a trail in Barangay Lepak in nearby Pandag town.
As if taunting local authorities, the BIFF gunmen on Saturday morning also blocked with trucks that they commandeered a strategic stretch of a thoroughfare straddling through Datu Paglas, located in the second district of Maguindanao.
They escaped towards the nearby Liguasan Delta carrying five wounded companions after about an hour of running gunfight with soldiers dispatched to drive them away.
Local residents confirmed to reporters Tuesday that the escape routes of the fleeing BIFF bandits had blood stains, an indication that a number of them were wounded in running gunfights with Army units under the 601st Infantry Brigade.
Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the culprits belong to a BIFF faction led by Kagui Karialan.
“No doubt they stormed the town proper of Datu Paglas to create the impression that their group was not weakened by the deaths of more than 20 members in clashes with pursuing soldiers between early April until May 6,” Uy said.
Uy said the IEDs their troops recovered one after another in the scenes of Saturday’s encounters and along the farm trails the BIFF had trekked en route to swamps that connect to the Liguasan Delta are now being deactivated by Army ordnance disposal experts.