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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Police have
mounted a manhunt for three men suspected of killing two policemen
in the troubled Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in
southern Philippines.
“Police forces are tracking
down the men responsible for the killings,” Chief Supt. Joel
Goltiao, the regional police chief, told The Manila Times.
The two policemen—Edgar Espra
and Prang Andig—were killed late Friday inside a commuter van in
Shariff Kabunsuan’s Sultan Kudarat town by three passengers. One
of the other passengers was also hit by a stray bullet, Goltiao
said.
The motive for the attack is
still unknown but, according to Goltiao, it could be linked to a
family feud.
“Feud could be the motive for
the killings because one of the victims, Police Officer 1 Prang
Andig, a son-in-law of Parang town Mayor Talib Abo, was said to have
many enemies before he became a policeman. Andig was believed to be
the real target here,” the police official said without
elaborating.
There was no immediate statement
from the family of Andig.
Clan wars, gun attacks and
extrajudicial killings are not uncommon in the Muslim autonomous
region. Dozens of people were killed in such wars and attacks in
recent years in the Muslim region, which is considered as the
poorest in the country.
The Muslim autonomous region was
also targeted in the past by terrorist bombings blamed by
authorities on the local Abu Sayyaf extremist group and the
Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiah.
The autonomous region, according
to the website Wikipedia, is composed of Basilan, Lanao del Sur,
Maguindanao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and the Islamic city
of Marawi. Its capital, it said, is Cotabato City.
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