By Edwin Fernandez / Philippine News Agency
CAMP SK PENDATUN, Maguindanao – Stricter checkpoints will be set up across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) following the death of Dawlah Islamiya leader Salahuddin Hassan last week.
Brig. Gen. Eden T. Ugale, BARMM police director, said Monday (Nov. 1) all police units in the region have been placed on heightened alert for possible retaliatory attacks from followers of the slain DI leader.
“We vow to remain relentless against the terrorist groups to sustain the peace and development that we have attained in the BARMM,” Ugale said in a statement.
Read more: DI terrorist leader, wife slain in Maguindanao clash
Ugale said they believe that Hassan still has active followers hiding in Maguindanao who are capable of carrying out retaliatory attacks to avenge his death.
He ordered all police provincial offices, municipal, and city police stations as well as provincial police mobile groups, and all police force multipliers to ensure everyone in the region is safe following Hassan’s death, which he said was a huge blow to the DI terror group in Maguindanao and other parts of the region.
Parallel with the alert status of all police units, especially in Maguindanao, the police are also seeking the help of the general public on the matter.
“We urge the public to continue to cooperate and report any threat or suspicious unlawful activities in their locality for us to effectively perform our mandate,” Ugale said.
A joint police and military pre-dawn operations in Talayan, Maguindanao on Oct. 29 led to the death of Hassan, the emir of Islamic State-linked DI terrorist group in the country, and his wife, Jehana Mimbida, the DI finance officer, in remote Barangay Damablac, Talayan town.
The wanted couple resisted arrest and engaged government troops in a brief gun battle, eventually resulting in their death.
Hassan, a student of slain foreign bomb-maker Zulkifli bin Hir, was blamed for the separate bombing and torching of two Yellow Bus units in North Cotabato in January and June this year, and also the Rural Transit Bus bombing in Bukidnon in 2014.
The DI was also tagged in the 2018 twin bombings in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat that killed five persons and hurt 40 others, and also the Davao Night Market explosion in Davao City in 2016. (PNA) – bny
