BARMM cops arrest suspect in ‘Mamasapano encounter’

COTABATO CITY– Police in the Bangsamoro announced the arrest of one of the suspects in the infamous “Mamasapano encounter” that claimed the lives of 44 elite police forces and 18 Moro gunmen in 2015.

Brig. Gen. Manuel Abu, regional director of Police Regional Office in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PRO-BARMM), said Lakiman Dawaling, 70, a resident of Tapekan, Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao, was arrested for charges of direct assault with murder issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 15 in Cotabato City.

Abu said police served the warrant of arrest against Dawaling at 2:40 p.m. Thursday at his home in Barangay Poblacion Mother of Shariff Aguak town.

Colonel Santiago said the arrest of Dawaling would help bring about justice to the 44 members of the Police Special Action Force (SAF) slaughtered by gunmen on January 25, 2015 in Barangay Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindano.

Abu said BARMM police would exhaust every means to finally capture the remaining suspects involved in the massacre of SAF 44.

“The operation efforts for this case will be intensified until justice will be fully delivered,” he said in a statement.

The SAF was in Mamasapano to arrest Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, who was reportedly being protected by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), an Islamic State-inspired group in Maguindanao.

Marwan, who has a bounty of $5,000,000 from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, was killed in the operation.

After Marwan was killed, the SAF unit tasked to provide security to retreating government forces, was trapped and ran out of ammunition during the day-long firefight.