COTABATO CITY – Security forces captured a senior Moro Islamic Liberation Front commander who is also a top leader of the jihadist group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters following a firefight in southern Philippines.
Hassan Indal, who uses the aliases Abu Hazam and Tambako, is currently being interrogated after his capture in Cotabato City late Tuesday. Indal’s son, Ali, was killed in the fighting.
Policemen, backed by army Special Forces soldiers, swooped down on Indal’s hideout in the riverside village of Kalanganan after intelligence agents tracked him down.
The 6th Infantry Division has confirmed Indal’s capture and said he is the BIFF’s Vice Chairman for Internal Affairs and commander of the group’s 4th Division. “Indal is involved in different criminalities and atrocities in central Mindanao since 2010,” Captain Jo-ann Petinglay, an army spokeswoman, told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Indal’s capture came following days of sporadic clashes between BIFF forces and government troops in Maguindanao, one of 5 provinces under the restive Muslim autonomous region.
Petinglay said troops recovered one automatic rifle and ammunition, a .45-caliber pistol and a hand grenade from Indal’s hideout.
Army Major General Edmundo Pangilinan said an informant helped authorities in tracking down Indal’s hideout in Cotabato. “This is an accomplishment not only of the security forces, but the entire community because Indal is one of the BIFF leaders who continually sow terror by laying IEDs and attacking civilian communities. We are thankful for the growing awareness of the community in fighting terrorism by providing essential information for his capture, he said.
In 2014, the 6th Infantry Division had claimed to have killed Indal during a fierce firefight with troops in Maguindanao. Its former spokesman, Colonel Dickson Hermoso made the fantastic claim that Indal was among dozens of BIFF members killed in the military operations.
The BIFF, founded by MILF leader Ameril Umra Kato, is fighting for Muslim independence. (Mindanao Examiner)
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