COTABATO CITY — Police have been on heightened alert in nearby Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao following an ambush incident in Barangay Rebuken late Wednesday afternoon involving three people, two of them government employees.
Chief Insp. Esmael Madin, Sultan Kudarat police chief, identified those embroiled in the ambuscade as Datu Razul Denila, 26, and Princess Karen Mastor, 37, both government employees; Alma Abdulla, 35, all residents of Barangay Rebuken.
The three were onboard a Kia sedan with plate number MCA 766 past 5 p.m. when they were waylaid by armed men positioned at one side of the road.
“The targeted car occupants managed to speed off from the area following the ambush,” Madin said.
But a stray bullet hit a minor who was riding a bicycle near the ambush site, he added.
The minor is now confined at a local hospital.
Madin said initial investigation revealed that the incident stemmed from long-standing grudge by one of the families of the three with another clan in the area.
“Our investigation is going on. We are also still trying to determine the identities of the ambushers,” he said.
Police checkpoints were immediately set up to defuse the brewing tension around town.
Early this year, a barangay official and a farm owner died while two others were wounded in an ambush in same village due to clan wars. (PNA)
