GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Police arrested four more alleged members of an Islamic State-inspired local terror group in an operation on Wednesday afternoon in a remote village in Polomolok town in South Cotabato.
Chief Supt. Eliseo Tam Rasco, regional director of the Police Regional Office-12, said Thursday the suspects were nabbed at around 3 p.m. in a raid in Purok 7 of Sitio Komotan, Barangay Sumbakil in Polomolok.
Rasco identified the suspects as Mohamed Lompong, 28; Dats Kalangke, 27; Monib Sagadan, 40; and Adin Dala, 25, all residents of the area.
Elements of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion-12 and the Tupi and Polomolok municipal police stations conducted the raid due to the reported presence of murder suspects Arafat and Mommamad Bulacon in the area, the police official said.
The Bulacons, who were tagged as members of the terror group Ansar Al-Khilafa Philippines, had been charged for the killing of a police officer in Tupi town last month.
Upon the arrival of the operating team, Rasco said the two targets and their cohorts sensed their presence and immediately fled.
A brief chase ensued that resulted in the arrest of the four suspects, who were reportedly close associates of the Bulacons, he said.
Recovered from the possession of the suspects were two fragmentation grenades, a Smith and Wesson .22-caliber revolver with serial number S.4702Q4 loaded with seven live bullets, four live bullets of .45-caliber pistol, three camouflage uniforms, and three mobile phones.
“The two targets (Bulacons) unfortunately escaped but pursuit operations against them are ongoing,” Rasco said.
Arafat and Mommamad Bulacon eluded arrest last Monday in a raid by joint police operatives at their safehouse in Purok 1, Barangay Palian in Tupi town.
But three of their alleged cohorts were arrested, yielding suspected explosive materials and two emblems with markings of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The Bulacons were tagged as primary suspects in the murder of PO1 Achilles Tablazon in Palian last Sept. 15.
Tablazon 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. (Allen Estabillo/PNA)
