New criminology graduate wounded in Basilan ambush

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines — It was supposed to be a special occasion for the family members and friends of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leaders in Basilan on Tuesday night, Sept. 20.

Rajan Abdurahman, the deputy commander of the 114th Base Command of the MILF, and his assistant, Harkie Jawabin Kasain, had just graduated from Universal College — Abdurahman with a civil engineering degree and Kasain with a criminology degree.

After the graduation ceremony at the Lamitan City Gymnasium, they boarded a Wigo Toyota car and headed Abdurahman’s house in Barangay Baas in Lamitan City.

They were with Abdurahman’s wife, Arsida Eisa Asmawil, and two other friends.

As they were traveling through a road in Barangay Colonia, two unidentified armed men on a motorcycle ambushed them at around 7 p.m., according to Col. Arlan Delumpines, chief of the Lamitan City Police Station.

The two men on the motorcycle had been following them, and as they got near the car, the pillion rider took out a .45-caliber pistol and started shooting.

Kasain suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to the Lamitan District Hospital. The others were unharmed, Delumpines said.

“Investigation is ongoing right now,” Delumpines added.

Grenade attack

Twenty-five minutes after the reported ambush, a grenade was thrown at the house of former Al Barka Vice Mayor Mujiv Hasan Jakilan in Sitio Extension, Barangay Bato, in Lamitan City.

Delumpines said no one was hurt in the incident.

According to eyewitnesses, two individuals on a green motorcycle lobbed a grenade at the House and fled immediately, Delumpines added, citing reports from his investigators.

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