ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 19, 2007)– Unidentified gunmen ambushed Friday a former Muslim rebel leader and his companion in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, police said.
Police said Jamasali Abdurahman, a special spokesman for jailed Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chieftain Nur Misuari, was attacked while walking in the village of Buanza in Indanan town at around 6.40 a.m. His unidentified companion was also killed.
“We are still investigating the ambush. Jamasali and his companion were killed in the attack,” Superintendent Ahiron Ajirim, the provincial police chief, told the Mindanao Examiner.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the town is a known stronghold of the MNLF.
Abdurahman, a native of Sulu province, ran for Congress in May, but lost.
He helped secure the release of 21 Asian and Western holidaymakers kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf in Malaysia’s island-resort of Sipadan in 2000.
Before he was killed, Abdurahman was also providing information to the Philippine military about the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya militants who have huge bounties on their heads.
Abdurahman was also with the group of MNLF members who held hostage Marine Major General Mohammad Dolorfino and Defense officials and soldiers early this year in Sulu to force Manila to free Misuari.
A known MNLF propagandist, Abdurahman became Interior Secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao after Misuari was elected as regional governor in 1996, the same year the rebel group signed a peace deal with Manila.
Misuari is currently in jail on rebellion charges after his forces tried, but failed to overrun a military base on the island in 2000. Misuari, disgusted with the peace agreement, fled to Malaysia, but was arrested there and later deported to Manila.
He accused Manila of reneging in the peace deal and for failing to uplift the poor living standards of many Muslims in the South. Under the agreement, the Philippines is to provide a mini-marshal plan and housing and livelihood to tens of thousands of former MNLF rebels. (Mindanao Examiner)
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