COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 23 June) – Policemen here have killed one of the suspects in the 2009 Ampatuan Massacre and two others during a shootout here early morning Monday.
Sr. Supt. Rolen Balquin, city police chief, said they were about to arrest massacre suspect Muktar Kindu, who had a pending warrant for his arrest with a bounty of P250,000 because of his alleged involvement in the Ampatuan Massacre, in his hideout at the Tanghal Subdivision in Barangay Bagua II.
The combined elements of the Cotabato City and Maguindanao police, however, fired upon the suspect and his companions around 5:30 a.m. when one of the latter got his firearm and still another attempted to throw a grenade toward the police, Balquin said.
He said they staged the raid after gathering intelligence report that Kindu and his companions were in the area planning to liquidate someone. “We learned they were given seven days to the job. It is now their fifth day,” the police chief said.
Bagua II barangay councilman Mohidan Paki said the three suspects were not familiar faces in the area. “We still have to find out if they were indeed residents here or just came here for some job,” he added.
Balquin said they recovered from the rented house six grenades, an M-16 rifle, a caliber .45 pistol, and police uniforms.
Kindu’s companions were identified as Guiamalon Buisan and one with the alias “Bad Boy.”
Fifty-eight people, including 32 media workers, were killed in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province on Nov. 23, 2009, with the then reigning Ampatuan family of Maguindanao as the main suspects.
