|
Muslim Scholars Killed, Mosque Bombed In Philippines
by Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 (IslamOnline) - Two Muslim scholars (ulama) were shot dead Friday at Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat, by still unidentified assassins believe to be members of a Philippine armed forces (AFP) liquidation group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said.
The victims were identified as Almansoor Sahabuddin and Kamaruddin Muhammad Taha, both graduates of the International Islamic University (IIU) in Islamabad, Pakistan. The two persons killed were members of the MILF, sources said.
The two were standing in front of a gasoline station when three-men riding on motorcycles armed with .45 caliber pistols fired at them, killing them instantly.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu expressed alarm over the development saying there appears to be a shifting military campaign against the MILF from the field to urban centers.
A question being asked by the MILF is whether a recently announced government suspension of military operations covers military campaigns in urban areas. "This is a kind of query, which only the government and its armed forces shall be able to provide the necessary answer," Kabalu commented.
The Tacurong incident will certainly give more reason for the MILF to insist on its concerns for holding peace talks on neutral ground outside the Philippines.
While the government had already announced the withdrawal of criminal charges and monetary rewards against MILF leaders, the military, on the other hand, seems to have intensified its activities aimed at eliminating selected MILF members, Kabalu observed.
He added that the military was subjecting the MILF to strategies that would force an all out counter offensive by the MILF.
Kabalu said the effect of an MILF all-out counter offensive is dependent on the existence of the military's all-out offensive, and if the latter no longer exists, then naturally, the former shall automatically be extinguished, he reasoned.
Elsewhere, at least 15 people were injured, nine seriously, when a fragmentation grenade exploded Friday morning just after conclusion of early dawn prayer inside a mosque at Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat.
A lone suspect riding on a bicycle threw the grenade into the mosque causing damages to the sanctuary. The suspect sped off from the crime scene under cover of darkness.
"Whoever is the culprit, certainly, he, or his group, is anti-Islam," Imam Abdulmaguid Macabangen said.
Lambayong is for all purposes, a Muslim town, but due to massive influxes of Christian settlers coming from Luzon and the Visayas during the 1960s and 1970s to the present, the population has dramatically changed.
The original Muslim inhabitants say that today they are a minority of their own homeland.
The Philippine government encouraged the coming of settlers thanks to numerous programs, such as the National Rural Reconstruction Administration (NARRA), and Economic Development Corporation (Edcor) among others, attracting them to the area.
The victims in the blast, seriously wounded, were brought to nearby hospitals in Tacurong City. Three of them were forwarded to the Regional Medical Center in Cotabato City due to the seriousness the injuries sustained.
One of the victims died at Quijano Medical Center at Tacurong City at about 6:45 Saturday morning, sources disclosed.
|
