Marwan trained 300 terrorists under MILF protection

MANILA — Police Director Getullio Napeñas, the sacked Special Action Force commander, told the Senate yesterday that Zulkifli Bin Hir, also known by the moniker “Marwan” has trained an estimated 300 terrorists presumably under the protection of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Abu Sayyaf Group, and Bangsamoro Freedom Fighters.

In his statement before the Senate committee on public order, chaired by Senator Grace Poe and investigating the bloody rout last January 24 in Mamasapano, Maguindanao where 44 police commandos perished, Napeñas said that for the past four years the police had received several intelligence reports that Marwan had been hiding in Mindanao.

While hiding in Mindanao under the protection of the MILF and BIFF, he continued to stay involved in militant Islamic activities and terrorist bombings, Napenas stated.

He added there was information that, along with other Southeast Asian militants, Marwan was engaged in the training of local jihadist volunteers to join the Islamic State. This information was gathered after the BIFF declared its allegiance to the ISIL’s cause.

The reports were that Marwan’s stint in Mindanao could have resulted in the training of up to 300 terrorists in the use of explosives, the detonation and building of explosive devices, and one of his cohorts in this activity is the other target of our operations, Ab- dul Basit Usman, Napeñas said.

Marwan was also said to be in charge of the Southeast Asian and Indonesian terrorist group called the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia or KMM.

KMM is a part of the international terrorist organization, Jemaah Islamiyah or JI, of which Marwan was believed to figure in its central command, Napeñas said.

Napeñas said that, just recently, law enforcement authorities received reports that as many as 30 of Marwan’s disciples could be roaming around in Central Mindanao, willing and able to create widespread fear, terror and panic through the use of Improvised Explosive Devices that he and his men themselves assembled.