COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 9, 2012) – Army soldiers killed a man they said is wanted by authorities at a military checkpoint in the southern Philippines after he allegedly tried to escape and explode a grenade on security forces, officials said Monday.
Officials said troops shot Mustapha Mangilen Guindalangan, alias Tha, as he tried to evade the soldiers who were trying to arrest him in the village of Villarica in North Cotabato’s Midsayap town.
Troops rushed the man to hospital, but he died along the way, according to Col. Prudencio Asto, a spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division.
“Guindalangan was a wanted man and had an arrest warrant for arson,” he said without further elaborating.
It was not immediately known whether Guindalangan was a member of any rebel group or crime syndicate in the province, but Asto said troops are on heightened alert in the North Cotabato due to the recent incident on kidnapping and extortion, and threats by lawless elements to derail the peace talks between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group fighting for self-determination in Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)
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