Police nab alleged terrorists
By Marlon Ramos
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:58:00 11/22/2008
Filed Under: Police, Crime, Acts of terror
MANILA, Philippines -- Police and military intelligence agents claim to have disrupted an alleged plan by the Al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf Group to sow terror in the metropolis with the arrest of two suspected bombers in Taguig last Friday.
Sala Kasan Bairulla, 42, and his son Al Basher Jaladdin, 20, were arrested in their room in Maharlika Village around 3:30 a.m. by a team of policemen and agents from the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Superintendent Arwin Pagkalinawan, Southern Police District, told the Inquirer the arrest was made after a two months of intelligence gathering operations against the alleged terrorists.
He said an improvised explosive device, a .38-caliber revolver, and a hand grenade were recovered from the suspects’ room.
According to Pagkalinawan, the bomb -- similar to the one used in the deadly Rizal Day bombing in 2002 -- could be detonated through a mobile phone.
“The bomb we seized from them was ready to be used anytime. If detonated, it could have caused damage within a radius of 200 meters,” Pagkalinawan said.
Pagkalinawan described Bairulla and his son as “fundamentalist Islamists” and ASG bombers who were on a mission to bomb several targets in Metro Manila.
He said the two arrived from Cotabato City last September but the authorities confirmed their identities only last October 19.
The suspects, he added, also belonged to the Special Operations Group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“MILF rebels are known to join Abu Sayyaf during special operations. Some Abu Sayyaf members also join MILF if they need to,” he said. “They have an interchangeable alliance.”
Asking not to be identified lest he be sacked for revealing information to the media, a police said two were supposed to plant and detonate a “powerful bomb somewhere in Makati’s Central Business District” during the Christmas season.
Pagkalinawan said the Bairullas were also tasked to bomb the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development which was held last month in Pasay City.
“They failed to fulfill their mission after their financiers did not send money from Mindanao,” he said.
Pagkalinawan said the two are now undergoing tactical interrogation to find out if they still have other cohorts in Metro Manila.
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