Cops seek Army help in hunt for Maguindanao ambush suspects 

COTABATO CITY — Maguindanao police sought the help of the military to run after gunmen who ambushed and injured a village official and three others in Datu Montawal town last August 19.

Mayor Ohto Montawal of Datu Montawal town and Capt. Razul Pandulo, the town’s police chief, met with officials of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion on Tuesday, seeking the military’s help in hunting down the gunmen who attacked Safrula Buday, village chair of Dungguan, Datu Montawal town in Maguindanao.

Buday and his three companions were heading home from a meeting when motorcycle-riding gunmen fired at their vehicle along the national highway in Barangay Layog, Pagalungan town in Maguindanao.   

Pandulo said Buday and companions were injured, and have since been confined at a hospital.

Police said they recovered empty shells of caliber .45 pistol from the crime scene.

Montawal said Buday had been locked in long-standing family feuds, although Buday has told police that one of those issues have already been settled last month.

 Police said that both the victims and the likely suspects in the attack have relatives within the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). /kga