Suspect in 2018 Cotabato mall bombing slain in raid on hideout

[FILE PHOTO] CHAOS Policemen secure South Seas Mall in Cotabato City following a bombing that left two people dead last New Year’s Eve. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The suspect, Abraham Abad Abdulrahman, aka Abu Suffian, resisted arrest during the raid on his hideout at Bagua 2 village in Cotabato City past 1 a.m., according to an official of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in the Bangsamoro region.

The raid’s target was another suspect, a Jasmiya Camsa Ibrahim, who had fled before policemen arrived, according to Maj. Esmail Madin, assistant CIDG chief in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

But as police were searching the hideout for Ibrahim, Abdulrahman pulled out a gun and opened fire, said Madin. Police returned fire and killed Abdulrahaman.

A caliber .45 pistol, hand grenade and materials for making bombs were found in the hideout, said Madin.

Madin said Abdularahman was one of the suspects in the Dec. 31, 2018 bombing at the South Seas Mall in Cotabato City that left two persons dead and 34 others wounded.

He said Abdulrahman had worked with Abu Toraife, a leader of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

In 2008, Toraife split from the MILF, the country’s largest rebel group which signed a peace deal with the government.

After the MILF dropped its separatist bid in Mindanao, Toraipe broke away from the MILF’s chain-of-command to form a splinter group.

Edited by TSB