By Edwin Fernandez and Noel Punzalan/Philippine News Agency
KIDAPAWAN CITY -– Classes have been suspended in at least 13 schools in Pikit, North Cotabato, as military operations against the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) continue, education officials said Friday.
At least 6,000 pupils were affected by the suspension of classes following the military’s “surgical” operations that started Thursday on the Liguasan marshland, said Brig. Gen. Alfredo Rosario Jr., Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade commander.
Rosario said the ongoing military operations are focused on areas bordering North Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces where the Islamic State-inspired BIFF militants usually converge.
Dima Guiani, Pikit West schools district supervisor, said the suspension of classes was issued Friday due to the clashes in the interiors of Pikit, particularly in Barangay Kabasalan.
“Some pupils did not report to school this morning while others showed up and the teachers too, now we ordered them to go home,” Guiani said.
“The children have been terrified hearing loud explosions that sent the ground shaking in Barangay Kabasalan,” he said.
Aerial and ground assaults launched before dawn Thursday left an elderly woman dead, and her husband and grandson wounded.
The injured victims, Alimudin Masla, 62; and his 10-year-old grandson, are now confined at the Cruzado Medical Clinic at Poblacion Pikit being watched by uniformed and plainclothes soldiers.
Rosario said an intelligence report indicated that Masla is a BIFF member, an allegation Masla denied.
The military said air and ground attacks were carried out after intelligence information confirmed the presence of BIFF commander Abu Toraife and other foreign terrorists in the area.
He said two soldiers of the 7th Infantry Battalion were wounded in the running gun battles since Thursday.
In the Maguindanao side of the conflict, a soldier died on Thursday morning during a two-hour encounter with fleeing BIFF militants in Barangay Dasawao of Shariff Saydona Mustapha town.
Rosario said the local government of Pikit is now attending to the needs of an undetermined number of evacuees who fled their homes since Thursday dawn.
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