ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/08 February) – Combined military and police personnel out to serve a warrant of arrest against wanted persons instead seized bomb-making materials in an island east of this city.
Col. Buenaventura Pascual, commander of the Task Force Zamboanga, said the troops seized the bomb-making materials following a brief firefight against four suspected followers of the so-called Pingli Akilan group, whose members are the subject of the warrant of arrest.
The brief firefight broke out 9:45 a.
m. Wednesday just as the troops landed in the coast of Barangay Landang Laum, Sacol Island, where the wanted persons were sighted, Pascual said.
Landang Laum is one of the four barangays in Sacol Island, which is reportedly being used by the Pingli group as staging point for kidnapping and other crimes.
The military and police have tagged the Pingli group as the local conduit of the Abu Sayyaf bandits in staging kidnappings in this city.
Pascual said the four Pingli Akilan followers fled on foot passing through the mangrove area of Landang Laum leaving behind a motorized banca with a tool box on it.
The contents of the tool box turned out to be bomb-making materials, he said.
The recovered bomb-making materials include ammonium nitrate placed in a 1.5 liter container, electronic tester, nine-volt batteries, printed circuit boards, mini-drill, transistors, capacitors, light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, soldering iron, soldering lead, diodes, and wires.
These were turned over to the explosive ordnance demolition section of the city police for safekeeping. (MindaNews)
