Nur Misuari and Ameril Umra Kato during a meeting on November 17, 2011 in Maguindanao province. (Mindanao Examiner Photo – Mark Navales)
COTABATO CITY – One of the Philippines’ most wanted rebel leader Ameril Umra Kato has reportedly died following a massive heart attack on Tuesday in Maguindanao province in the restive Muslim autonomous region.
News of his death broke out after villagers in Guindulungan town reported the tragic end for the former commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, who led a series of deadly attacks in Mindanao in 2008 after peace talks with the Filipino government failed.
Kato, who suffered a stroke in 2011, split with the MILF after accusing its leader Murad Ebrahim of abandoning their struggle for independence and betraying the rebel group when he agreed to a secret meeting called by President Benigno Aquino in Japan in August of the same year.
“Murad corrupted the rights of the Bangsamoro people,” Kato had said following that meeting in Tokyo.
The 6th Infantry Division said it has no report about the news of Kato’s death, although it ordered commanders to verify the information.
“Wala pa kaming official report (on the death of Kato),” Capt. Jo-ann Petinglay, an army spokeswoman told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
A little known jihadist, Sheik Mohidin Animbang, has been said to have taken over Kato’s leadership.
Authorities have linked the rebel group to Jemaah Islamiya and al-Qaeda, including a rag-tag army of militants fighting for the Islamization of Mindanao. The military said Kato’s group had coddled Malaysian bomber Zulkifli bin Hir, tagged as among those behind the 2002 Bali bombings.
Zulkifli was killed in a police raid in January this year in Maguindanao’s Mamasapano town that also left 44 commandos dead after BIFF and MILF rebels ambushed them on their way out in Tukanalipao village.
Kato’s group vowed to disrupt the peace talks between the MILF and the Aquino government and pursue an independent Muslim state in Mindanao, home to some four million Muslims in a region of about 18 million, mostly Christian inhabitants. (Mindanao Examiner)
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