GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Joint government operatives killed the leader of an armed group that had pledged support to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and arrested three of its members in an operation early Thursday (January 5) in Kiamba town in Sarangani province.
Senior Superintendent Leonardo Suan, Police Regional Office-Soccsksargen's deputy regional director for operations, said Mohammad Jaafar Sabewang Maguid, alias Tokboy, was killed in an encounter around 1 a.m. at the Angel Beach Resort in Barangay Kitagas, Kiamba.
Maguid was the founder and leader of the Ansar Al-Khilafah Philippines, which had been blamed for a string of terror attacks in Sarangani and neighboring areas.
“It’s confirmed. It was Tokboy,” Suan said in a radio interview.
He identified the arrested suspects as Matahata Dialawe Arboleda, Ismael Sahak alias Mael, and Morhaban Veloso alias Bugoy.
Recovered from the suspects were two lite Armalite rifles and a hand grenade.
Suan said they launched the operation after an informant tipped them of the group’s presence at the resort.
The operation involved personnel from the PRO-Soccsksargen, Regional Public Safety Battalion, Sarangani police’s intelligence branch and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
Resort owner Arnulfo Flores said Maguid’s group arrived in the area late Wednesday night.
Maguid, who bolted from the Sarangani provincial jail in 2010, was the subject of at least 15 arrest warrants issued by various local courts since 2008.
He was charged with multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, frustrated murder, robbery with violence, robbery with homicide, destructive arson and arson, before the Regional Trial Court Branches 11 and 38 in Alabel, Sarangani. (PNA)
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