Henchman of Maute group founders surrender
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 17:45 PM Thu Dec 22, 2022
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By:
John M. Unson
COTABATO CITY --- A henchman of the slain founders of the Maute terrorist group that instigated the deadly 2017 siege of Marawi City surrendered Wednesday.
The now 20-year-old Mashod, whose real name was withheld for his safety, first yielded Monday to barangay officials in Madalum, Lanao del Sur and the commanding officer of the Army’s 51st Infantry Battalion, Lt. Col. Angestal Angeles.
He renounced his membership with the Dawlah Islamiya and pledged allegiance to the government Wednesday before local executives, Army officials and Muslim religious leaders.
Mashod, who turned in an M14 assault rifle, was still an adolescent when he joined the Maute group founded by the siblings Abdullah and Omarkhayam Maute, whose religious adventurism sparked the May 23 to August 16, 2017 bloody and destructive conflict in Marawi City.
More than a thousand, among them 119 soldiers and policemen, perished in the conflict that also displaced no fewer than 300,000 Marawi City residents and left historic, centuries-old Maranao dwelling enclaves in ruins.
The Maute brothers, who first established the Maute group in 2015 in Butig town in Lanao del Sur, were both killed by pursuing soldiers in Marawi City on August 16, 2017.
Mashod, a known close aide of the duo, has confessed to his having joined the Dawlah Islamiya three years ago.
Officials of the Lanao del Sur provincial government and the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade have asked reporters not to reveal, meantime, Mashod’s real name owing to the Dawlah Islamiya’s tradition of venting ire on members who have returned to the fold of law.