ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / June 18, 2012) – Security forces killed a notorious kidnap leader in a clash in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday.
Officials said Wahid Pingli, tagged as behind the spate of kidnappings for ransom in Zamboanga, was killed on Sacol Island after a 15-minute fire fight over the weekend.
“His neutralization is a big relief for Zamboanga,” Army Colonel Buenaventura Pascual, commander of a local anti-terror task force, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said police and military forces were serving an arrest warrant on Pingli on his hideout when opened fire on soldiers and policemen. He said security forces recovered an automatic pistol and a grenade launcher, including mobile phones and a medical kit from Pingli’s hideout.
Police said Pingli was a senior member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and tagged as behind the kidnapping of a US woman Gerfa Lunsmann and her son Kevin, and a Filipino relative while they were vacationing in Zamboanga City. (Mindanao Examiner)
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