Maute member nabbed in Lanao evacuation site
Local News • 02:04 AM Tue Jul 25, 2017
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By:
Edwin O. Fernandez
COTABATO CITY – Police announced today the arrest Sunday of a member of the Maute
terror group in an evacuation in Saguiaran town in Lanao del Sur.
Chief Supt. Reuben
Sindac, police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
(PRO-ARMM), said Lala Arafat, 38 was positively identified by evacuees as
followers of siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute.
Arafat did not resist when police took him at 5 p.m. Sunday but denied he was Maute member.The Maute
brothers were founders of Dawlah Islamiya or the terror group - the Maute
terror group which pledge allegiance to ISIS and seized Marawi City.
Arafat, a
resident of Barangay Osmeña, Marawi City, was collared by police while inside
an evacuation center in Saguiaran, posing as internally displaced person,
getting aid from government and other organizations.
Sindac said
the local police was alerted by evacuees who noticed Arafat mingling with them and
kept on talking about the Maute group’s stance in the siege.
In his
possession were 12 identification cards carrying different names. He was unarmed.
Sindac said
charges will be filed against Arafat.