Peace advocate slain, wife hurt in GenSan gun attack
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 14:45 PM Wed May 27, 2020
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By:
Richelyn Gubalani/PNA
SHOOTING. The Honda Civic sedan driven by peace advocate and Mindanao State University-General Santos City campus professor Mohamad Taha Abdulgapor, 53, when he was killed in a gun attack along the national highway in Barangay Apopong on Tuesday afternoon
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- A peace advocate and professor of the Mindanao State University (MSU) here was killed while his wife was wounded in a shooting along the national highway on Tuesday afternoon.
Col. Aden Lagradante, city police director, said Wednesday the car being driven by Prof. Mohamad Taha Abdulgapor, with his wife Salimah as passenger, was waylaid by two persons on a motorcycle at a portion of the highway in Barangay Apopong at past 5 p.m.
Lagradante said the couple was on their way home to nearby Polomolok town, South Cotabato province when they were attacked.
A police report said the 53-year-old Mohammad, who was shot on the head, died while undergoing treatment at the Sarangani Bay Specialists Medical Center.
Salimah, 54, was hit on the arm and has been declared out of danger by attending doctors.
Mohammad was a professor of political science and Islamic Studies of MSU-General Santos Department of Islamic Studies and a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front Local Monitoring Team.
Isnira Arap Baginda, college secretary of the MSU-General Santos College of Law and faculty member of the Department of Islamic Studies, confirmed in a Facebook post that Mohammad died past 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Baginda said the victim’s burial was set in Polomolok town on Wednesday “following the 24-hour limit set by Islamic Law for Muslim burial.”
Lagradante said investigators were still determining the identities of the assailants and possible motive of the attack.
He said they were also looking into several angles, one of which is an ongoing land dispute in a village here.
Police authorities were also trying to determine whether the victim had received death threats before the incident, Lagradante said.
“We have widened our investigation and considering all possible angles,” he said in an interview.
Lagradante added that they were coordinating with other law enforcement units, including the Polomolok municipal police station, to assist their investigation. (PNA)