ZAMBOANGA CITY – Security forces shot dead one of the captors of Italian missionary Father Giancarlo Bossi in a gun battle early Wednesday in the southern port city of Zamboanga, officials said.
Army Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, said Samad Awang, a notorious sub-leader of a kidnapping group, was killed in the coastal village of Mampang where he was hiding.
Vinluan said policemen, backed by soldiers, tracked down Awang in his hideout and were trying to arrest him when he attacked security forces, sparking a firefight and eventually killing him.
“With their lives in danger, the apprehending team retaliated which resulted in the instantaneous death of Awang,” he said, adding, no soldiers or policemen were wounded or killed in the fighting.
Troops also recovered Awang’s .45-caliber pistol and a magazine loaded with bullets.
Army Col. Antonio John Divinagracia, commander of the anti-terror Joint Task Force Zamboanga, said Awang was among those who kidnapped Bossi from his seminary in the town of Payao in Zamboanga Sibugay province in June 2007. The priest was freed a month later.
Awang was also being linked to several more ransom kidnappings of Filipino traders in the province, just 110 kilometers east of here.
“He led the kidnapping of Joel Endino on January 29, 2011, in Ipil town, Zamboanga Sibugay. He was also responsible for the kidnapping of Father Giancarlo Bossi in 2007 and Kathy Casipong in 2013,” Divinagracia said.
Late last month, police commandos also killed three Abu Sayyaf terrorists Radi Tahirin, Hasan Alimin and Abdilla Aspalin in a sea clash off the coastal village of Taluksangay here. The trio was believed sent here to bomb civilian targets.
Mayor
Beng Climaco warned the public, including foreigners and their Filipina
spouses, to stay vigilant against of threats of kidnapping and terrorism,
saying criminal elements may strike anywhere or at any time.
“We would also
like to warn the public, especially the families or the spouses married to
foreigners, to please exercise precautions. We are issuing this warning due to
threats of kidnapping, especially to the foreigners residing in Zamboanga, and
(for them) to coordinate with your barangay officials and the local security
forces - the police and military because we do not want to have any incident of
kidnapping in Zamboanga,” she said.
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