2 killed, 3 hurt in Cotabato gun attacks

COTABATO CITY — Two Moro villagers were killed, while three others were wounded in separate gun attacks in two adjoining towns in Cotabato province within just two days.

The first to perish in the three atrocities is Bayan M. Pangulagoy, killed in an ambush on Saturday afternoon in Barangay Punol in Pikit, Cotabato.

Ranking officials of the Cotabato Provincial Police Office told reporters on Monday that Mr. Pangulagoy and his cousin, Mohaimen, were riding a motorcycle together when a man armed with an M16 assault rifle opened fire as they got close. Mr. Pangulagoy’s cousin was wounded in the attack.

Another Moro villager, Johari P. Santi, was killed when gunmen fired assault rifles at their house in Barangay Dalingaoen in Pikit at about midnight on Saturday.

Col. Gilbert B. Tuzon, Cotabato provincial police director, said the wife of the slain Mr. Santi, a farmer, was seriously wounded in the incident.

A Muslim preacher, Ustadz Hasim M. Suboh, was critically wounded in another ambush on Sunday morning in Barangay Salunayan in Midsayap, Cotabato.

Officials of the Midsayap Municipal Police Station said Mr. Suboh, a resident of Barangay Tumbras, was riding his motorcycle, when men waiting at one side of the road shot him with .45 caliber pistols and hurriedly fled.

The wounded Mr. Suboh was immediately brought to a hospital by policemen and barangay officials who responded to the incident. — John Felix M. Unson