Leader of pro-IS group in Phl killed
Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, the figurehead of the extremist Ansarul Khilafa Islamiya Philippines, was killed in an encounter with security forces at a beach resort in Kiamba, Sarangani early yesterday.
Police said three of his bodyguards were arrested during the encounter at Angel beach resort in Barangay Kitagas at around 1 a.m.
Matahata Dialawe Arboleda, Ismael Sahak and Morhaban Veloso gave up and surrendered to the lawmen after seeing Maguid fall during the
firefight, police said.
Maguid, known abroad as Abu Shareefa al- Filibini, founded the Ansarul Khilafa Philippines (AKP) as among the several violent Islamic militant groups in Mindanao that has carried out deadly attacks on civilians to win support from Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.
“He’s wanted for bombing incidents. They use improvised explosive devices, killing people at town festivals,” regional police director Chief Supt. Cedric Train said.
“They fly the ISIS flag in their camps. They want to be recognized by the ISIS,” Train added, referring to the Islamic State group by one of its acronyms.
The military killed eight Ansarul Khilafa members in a clash in November 2015 at Maguid’s hometown of Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat.
Maguid and his followers were trying to put up a Taliban-style government in Butril, a remote village in Palimbang, when security forces attacked them.
The Maguid- led Khilafa group is known for its links with the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Maguindanao and the Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Maute group in Lanao del Sur.
Repercussions
Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno warned of potential violent repercussions following the death of Maguid, more widely known by his nickname, Commander Tokboy.
“They might retaliate so we have to double our preparations,” Sueno said, citing the upcoming feast of the Black Nazarene in Manila on Jan. 9.
Ansarul Khilafa was behind an attack that left two civilians dead in Mindanao in 2008 as well as a series of robberies and other crimes, according to Sidney Jones, director of the Indonesiahas based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict.
Maguid was arrested in 2009 but escaped eight months later, Jones said in a research paper published in October last year.
Train said the authorities had also been looking into Ansarul Khilafa’s role in a bombing in Davao City in September last year that killed 15 people and injured dozens of others.
Maguid, who Train said was aged 32, appeared in a video circulated on social media last year with the leaders of other local militant groups pledging allegiance to ISIS.
The military said the killing of Maguid was a setback for terrorism in the country.
“The death of Tokboy is a big blow to the AKP and the group’s terror plot across the country,” said Col. Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Public Affairs Office chief.
“The AFP will not stop until we neutralize each and every one of the AKP. The AKP is one of the groups that has expressed sympathy or allegiance to ISIS, although our view is that those are just mere professing. We don’t have clear information that they have been accepted or acknowledged by ISIS as its member,” Arevalo added. –