GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Joint operatives arrested three alleged members of an Islamic State-inspired local terror group and recovered several explosives in an operation in Tupi town in South Cotabato early Monday.
Chief Supt. Eliseo Rasco, regional director of the Police Regional Office-12, said Akmad Bulacon and sons Muktar and Zandro were nabbed in a raid at a house in Purok 1, Barangay Palian in Tupi.
He tagged the three as members of notorious criminal and terror group Ansar Al-Khilafah Philippines (AKP).
Armed with arrest warrants, Rasco said operatives from the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force, Anti-Kidnapping Group, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and the Tupi and Polomolok municipal police stations stormed the house of the Bulacons at around 2 a.m.
He said the operation mainly targeted cousins Arafat and Mohammad Bulacon, who were charged for the killing of Police Officer (PO) 1 Achilles Tablazon in the area last Sept. 15.
But the official said the two targets managed to escape by fleeing towards the mountainous area of Barangay Lunen, Tupi.
He said Akmad, the father of Arafat, and sons Muktar and Zandro were cornered by operatives while trying to escape.
Recovered from the three were a backpack containing two black emblems with markings of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, two blasting caps, ammonium nitrate, bandolier with several ammunition of 5.56-M16 rifle, a fragmentation grenade and three rifle grenades, he said.
Rasco said the operating team also seized two motorcycles that were reportedly used in the killing of Tablazon in front of his house in Barangay Palian, Tupi.
The slain police officer was a member of the security staff of Chief Supt. Ulysses Caton, the deputy regional director for administration of the PRO-12, and previously assigned at the intelligence branch of the South Cotabato Police Provincial Office based in Koronadal City.
Rasco said the three suspects are currently detained at the Tupi municipal police station lockup pending the filing of appropriate charges.
“We have ongoing manhunt operations against the two subjects of the arrest warrants,” he said.
Police described the AKP as an Islamic State-inspired group operating in South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos or Socsargen area and part of the local network of the Maute Group.
The group, which originated in Sarangani Province, was tagged as behind a string of killings, armed robberies, illegal drug activities and terror attacks, including the Sept. 16 bomb explosion here that left eight people wounded. ( Allen Estabillo/PNA)
