Hashim Saripada, an alleged trusted aide of Abu Sayyaf Group unit sub-leader and bombmaker Mudzrimar “Mundi” Sawadjaan, poses for a mugshot after his arrest in Zamboanga City on Sunday, September 27, 2020. Photo from PNP
MANILA, Philippines — Police have arrested the alleged trusted aide of Abu Sayyaf Group unit sub-leader and bombmaker Mudzrimar “Mundi” Sawadjaan in Zamboanga City.
Philippine National Police chief Gen. Camilo Cascolan said Hashim Saripada alias Ibnu Kashir was captured by operatives of the Regional Intelligence Unit of the Police Regional Office 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) and the 84th Special Action Company of the Special Action Force at 6:30 a.m. Sunday in Barangay Recodo.
Cascolan said in a press briefing Monday that Saripada is the subject of a warrant of arrest for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder.
Police records show that Saripada allegedly has a “key role” in the bombing of a Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit detachment in Lamitan City in Basilan on July 31, 2018, that killed 11 persons.
According to Cascolan, Saripada facilitated the travel of Moroccan bomber Abu Kathir Al-Maghribi from Sulu to Basilan to carry out the bombing.
“Likewise, Saripada and Mundi Sawadjaan reportedly prepared the IED detonated by an Indonesian couple at the Mt. Carmel Cathedral in Jolo, Sulu on January 17, 2019,” he added.
A hand grenade and materials for creating an improvised explosive device were confiscated from Saripada when he was arrested.
Cascolan said the arrest of Saripada will largely cripple the terrorist activities being planned by Sawadjaan, whom the military earlier identified as the mastermind of the twin suicide bombings in Jolo, Sulu, on August 24 that killed 15 people and injured over 70 others.
“This will be a very, very big blow on him, because nawalan sya ng isang pinagkakatiwalaan (he lost one of his trusted men) and this one is actually his assistant,” the PNP chief said, referring to Sawadjaan.
“Karamihan ng kanyang mga activities ngayon, hindi na matutuloy because of that, and he knows na minomonitor na sya ng lahat ng intelligence and anti-terrorism units,” he added.
(Most of his activities will not push through because of that, and he knows he is now being monitored by all intelligence and anti-terrorism units.)