PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 9, 2013) – A six-year old Muslim girl was shot in the head in an attack by a group of gunmen in the town of Labangan in Zamboanga del Sur province in southern Philippines, police said Friday.
Police said the gunmen attacked the house of village chieftain Mohibat Pagayao and four other houses in Old Labangan and hit the girl Danah Maguindra.
The victim was rushed to hospital in Pagadian City and police said the attacks were believed to be connected to a family feud.
Police said the houses of, Mike Pagayao, Jumael Buhisan, Sabila Maguindra and Zaidal Zamplidan were strafed by gunmen, who escaped after the shootings.
Earlier in November, motorcycle gunmen also shot and wounded Abdul Racman Talumpay, village chieftain of Dalapang in Labangan town, in Pagadian City. Talumpay was attacked near Agora Market along Pajares Avenue in Santa Lucia District.
In October, a village chieftain in Labangan town, Leopoldo Selada, of Nuboran, narrowly escaped death after gunmen strafed his house with automatic weapons. Selada was sleeping alone in the house when the attack occurred.
It was unknown whether the gun attacks were connected to each other, but prior to that, a suspected bomber was killed after an improvised bomb he was transporting exploded in the village of Tapodoc in Labangan town.
Police recovered an improvised bomb assembled from a 60mm mortar and rigged to a detonator and a cell phone, not far from the dead man’s decapitated body at a rice paddy near the highway. (Mindanao Examiner)
20