ZAMBOANGA CITY – Philippine authorities have broken a secretive convention by an Indonesian sect and seized a black Shahada flag in the southern port city of Zamboanga, officials said Sunday.
Officials said some 200 people were gathered inside a compound in Sinunuc village where an Indonesian man Mahsum Ahmad – of the Ahmadiyya Sect Muslim Community Philippines – was holding the convention.
Inspector Dahlan Samuddin, a regional police spokesman, said the convention was illegal because its organizer failed to secure a government permit. He said a team of policemen led by Senior Inspector Hingming Ladjaali inspected the area after receiving reports from villagers about the presence of suspicious people in the compound.
“During the operation, it was found that there were more or less 200 personalities present in the area including women and children. Most of the participants were from nearby provinces of Zamboanga City. The police team confiscated black flag printed with Arabic words, half-moon with a star beside the Philippine flag,” Samuddin said.
He said police took the names and photographs of all those who attended the convention and told them to leave the area.
Samuddin did not say if the black flag with Arabic inscriptions was similar to those being use by ISIS and the local Abu Sayyaf group. It was unknown whether the Indonesian man had a residency permit in Zamboanga.
Just recently, government troops also seized two Shahada flags and improvised explosives following fierce clashes with Abu Sayyafs in Hadji Mohammad Ajul town in nearby Basilan province. (Mindanao Examiner)
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