BIFF highway blockade in revenge of arrest of Maute terrorists

MAGUINDANAO – Bandits on Saturday blocked a strategic stretch of a national highway in Guindulungan town to avenge the arrest of five Islamic militants in a hinterland northwest of Maguindanao province.Members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) used heavy trucks they flagged down to close for five hours the Bagan-Tambunan stretch of the Cotabato-Isulan Highway in Guindulungan in the second district of Maguindanao.The attack came less than 24 hours after the arrest in Barira, Maguindanao of five members of the Maute terror group --- the erstwhile policeman Jessy Original,Ibrahim Arumpac, Hamza Bagul, Musa Rasamallah and Mohammad Said Biniday --- while scouting for a place where to hide six vehicles they were to rig with improvised explosive devices.The highway blockade stranded hundreds of vehicles authorities prevented from getting close to the spot where BIFF gunmen parked the trucks they commandeered on both lanes of the thoroughfare.Soldiers and policemen managed to clear the blockade after the bandits left following a standoff that waned only after local officials and community elders intervened to stave off an encounter that could cause dislocation of innocent villagers.The BIFF, through Abu Misry Mama, claimed responsibility for the closure of the highway. Our men were responsible for blocking that portion of a highway there, Mama, who is BIFF’s spokesman, told reporters via mobile phone in Filipino.Members of the municipal peace and order councils in different towns in the second district of Maguindanao said on Saturday the BIFF was angered by the arrest on Thursday in Barira of five Maute terror group members.One of the five arrested terrorists, Original, was a member of the Philippine National Police for nine years before he joined the Maute group, now sowing havoc in Lanao del Sur.Though subtly distinct in religious ideals, the BIFF and the Maute group, also known as the Dawlah Islamiya, both boasts of allegiance to the Independent State of Iraq and Syria and are using the black ISIS flag as their revolutionary banners.Original, who was assigned in Antipolo, Rizal while still a policeman, told reporters he was a Catholic who embraced Islam last year before joining radical jihadists led by siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute in Butig, Lanao del Sur.He and his four companions are now detained at the regional office in Cotabato City of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Original also admitted to reporters his involvement in the September 2, 2016 bombing in Davao City that left 15 dead and injured more than 60 others. I was one of the lookouts when we perpetrated the bombing, he said.Original said he is more known in the Maute group by his Muslim name Abu Aisa.Seven suspects in the deadly Davao City bombing, among them their leader, TJ Macabalang, an ethnic Maguindanaon, were arrested in one operation after another in Cotabato City after the incident.The arrested bombers have links with five BIFF members,Salahudin Hassan, Abdulmalik Esmael, Bashir Ungab, Nasser Adil and Ansari Yunos, who were trained in fabrication of IEDs by the slain Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan.The five Maute members were intercepted by CIDG agents and combined personnel of the Barira municipal police and the Army’s 37thInfantry Battalion in Barangay Nabalawag on Thursday, acting on a tip by confidential informants.Investigators said the five militants planned to hide somewhere in Barira the six vehicles they planned to fill with explosives to be detonated in selected areas in Mindanao.Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, said they learned of the plan to bring in the vehicles to the province from vigilant local officials and moderate Islamic religious leaders. We are thankful to these informants, Tello said.Supt. Jimmy Daza, CIDG’s regional chief for ARMM, said besides the six vehicles, the team that intercepted the five suspects also recovered from them four fragmentation grenades and materials for fabrication of IEDs.Daza said they are now verifying the ownership of the six vehicles, a white Toyota Tamaraw FX (ULB-358), a gray Mitsubishi Adventure (DSL-162), a white Mitsubishi Montero (AEX-783), a white Toyota Fortuner (TDQ-440), a silver Toyota Fortuner (TQK-892) and a Toyota Hi-Ace van without license plates