Islamic preacher survives gun attack in Bangsamoro
COTABATO CITY—A Muslim religious leader was shot while praying inside his home in Sitio Sabpa, Barangay Kapinpilan, Kadayangan town of the Special Geographic Area (SGA) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on Saturday.
Israel Silungan Padao, 43, a Muslim religious preacher from Barangay Kapinpilan, is the second Islamic religious leader to be attacked in the BARMM in just a span of five days and the fourth since Aug. 25.
Police Lt. Col. Jopy Ventura, spokesperson for the Police Regional Office Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (Probar), said an unidentified gunman suddenly entered Padao’s house while he was praying at around 7 p.m. and immediately opened fire.
The victim sustained gunshot wounds to his hands and feet and was immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment. At least seven empty shells of a .45-caliber pistol were recovered from the crime scene by the Kadayangan municipal police.
Other victims
The attack on Padao followed the killing of an Islamic preacher, whose body was found hogtied, with bullet wounds in the chest, in a village of Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, on Sept. 8.
Abusadid Landasan, 35, the school principal of the Madrasatul Alnor Al-Islamie in Barangay Lawili in Alesoan town, Cotabato province, and a resident of nearby Pikit town, was last seen driving his motorcycle in Barangay New Panay, Aleosan on his way home to Pikit at 11 a.m. on Monday. He never arrived home. At 6 p.m. on the same day, his body was found by villagers in Barangay Taviran of Datu Odin Sinsuat town.
Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 25 and also a Monday, motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead Ustadz Mohammad Hessam Midtimbang, 32, at past 6 p.m. while he was about to board his car along the busy Gutierrez Avenue in Cotabato City. Midtimbang, who was shot from behind, worked at the Bangsamoro Darul Ifta (House of Opinion) and maintained a radio program propagating the Islamic faith and peace. Relatives told the police he had no known enemies.
Midtimbang was the son of Cotabato City Administrator Abdulwahab Midtimbang and brother of Cotabato City Councilor Guiadzuri Midtimbang and Barangay Bagua 1 village chief Teng Midtimbang.
Another Islamic preacher named Datu Masla Mamo was also killed along with another member of his family on Aug. 25 when the family’s Toyota commuter van was ambushed by gunmen at Barangay Bagan of Guindulungan town. Six other family members were wounded but survived. Police eyed rido as a possible reason for the attack.
The Cotabato City Council earlier expressed alarm over the spate of shootings in the city in the past two months in broad daylight and in the presence of law enforcers but it was not yet certain yet if it had something to do with the next month’s first parliamentary elections in the BARMM.
