COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 17, 2008) – Unidentified gunmen snatched a budget official of the state-run Mindanao State University in the southern Philippines, police said Friday.
Police said Hipolito Minoza was seized by gunmen on Thursday afternoon on a highway near the village of Bubong in Saguiran town in Lanao del Sur in the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.Minoza was on his way to Iligan City from Marawi City when seized, it said.
"Minoza was on a vehicle when gunmen stopped him on the highway," Chief Superintendent Bensali Jabarani, the regional police chief, told the Mindanao Examiner.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings, but Jabarani has ordered police forces to track down the assailants in the province. "We still don't know who were behind this and the motive of the kidnapping," he said.
But the military was quick to blame the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels and even implicated one of its leaders Abdurahman Macapaar in the kidnapping. The rebel leader is being hunted by security forces for leading deadly attacks in August in Mindanao.
The MILF strongly denied the military allegation. "Why blame us for everything? This is absurd and the MILF has nothing to do with the kidnapping, we are not kidnappers, but revolutionaries," Eid Kabalu, a rebel spokesman, said in a separate interview.
The MILF is the country's largest Muslim rebel group fighting for self-determination in Mindanao. (J. Magtanggol)
No comments:
Post a Comment