11 terrorists tagged in plunder of Datu Piang surrender

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao - One of the commanders of terrorists who burned a police vehicle and shot a Catholic church and houses in the town proper of Datu Piang in December surrendered on Saturday.

Nino Ebrahim, a henchman of Imam Karialan, and his ten followers pledged allegiance to the government through the joint intercession of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Army’s 6^th Infantry Battalion and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Karialan, leader of one of three factions in the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is wanted for heinous offenses, including a spate of deadly bomb attacks in central Mindanao since 2014.

Ebrahim and his followers, Mohidin Kusain, Mehad Guiamandal, Jiad Ebrahim, Jiamil Ebrahim, Gapor Damada, Indal Damada, Wari Damada, Hamui Amil, Kalim Zukamen and Ausain Sawsana, have confessed to their involvement in the Datu Piang attack.

Ebrahim said it was the two top leaders of the BIFF, Karialan and Imam Bongos, who ordered the attack involving more than 50 bandits to retaliate for the arrest prior for peddling of shabu and possession of firearms and explosives of a number of their supporters in Datu Piang.

Intelligence units of the Bangsamoro regional police office and the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division are still trying to locate at least four other BIFF commanders involved in the atrocity.

“We decided to surrender and start life all over again after learning that those who have surrendered from the BIFF ahead have properly been ushered by government agencies into mainstream society,” Ebrahim said.

He and his companions turned in assorted firearms during a simple surrender rite held on Saturday in an interior area in Barangay Buayan in Datu Piang town in the second district of Maguindanao.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division that has jurisdiction over Maguindanao province, said he is thankful to the CIDG-BAR, the 6^th IB and the Military Intelligence Group-12 of ISAFP and municipal officials in Datu Piang for having convinced Ebrahim and his followers to return to the fold of law.

Uy said he will request the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao through BARMM’s local government minister, Naguib Sinarimbo, to extend to the 11 former BIFF gunmen essential humanitarian interventions to hasten their reintegration into the local communities.