Guns, bomb-making components seized in Maguindanao

 SECURING THE PERIMETER. Two members of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion take cover during a law enforcement operation against armed lawless elements on Tuesday morning, December 1, 2020, in Sultan sa Barongis, Maguindanao. While the suspects eluded arrest, government forces found in their safe house assorted high-powered guns. (PHOTO COURTESY OF 40IB, MINDANAO EXPOSE’)  

 CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao -- Government forces on Tuesday, December 1, seized assorted high-powered firearms and bomb components from the safe house of lawless gunmen in Sultan sa Barongis town of the province.

Lt. Colonel Rogelio Gabi, commander of the 40th Infantry Battalion who led the focused- military operation in Barangay Langgapanan, said government forces were after Edsrafil Manalasal Guiwan, a field commander of Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and a certain Lakim Esmael, a member of a kidnap-for-ransom gang.

“These armed men are roaming freely in the communities, we were told,” Colonel Gabi said, adding that Guiwan was linked to a series of improvised bomb attacks in Pres. Quirino, Sultan Kudarat and was facing murder charges.

Esmael, on the other hand, was also known in the village as a big-time illegal drug pusher.

However, Gabi said the two managed to elude arrest and fled before the military arrived in the village around 4 a.m. Tuesday, December 1.

Both have warrants of arrests for murder, frustrated murder, illegal drug pushing, and extortion.

In Guiwan's house, Esmael said the troops found two rocket-propelled grenade launchers, rocket-propelled grenades, a homemade 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, two-way radio sets, bomb-making materials, and mobile phones.

“We will not allow these armed groups inflicting terror in the communities within the 40IB area of operation,” Gabi told local officials in a meeting on Monday, November 30. (EDWIN FERNANDEZ, PNA, MINDANAO EXPOSE’)