SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao del Sur — Unidentified gunmen shot dead a village chairperson of nearby Datu Hoffer Ampatuan town on Tuesday afternoon, police said.
Colonel Ruel Sermese, Maguindanao police director, identified the victim as Hadji Basit Zangkala, village chairman of Barangay Labu-Labu 2.
Quoting a report from Shariff Aguak municipal police office, Sermese said Zangkala was sitting inside his car parked beside the highway while waiting for his wife who was buying rice at a roadside store.
Two men on a motorbike approached the victim’s car at past 5 p.m. and opened fire using a caliber .45 pistol.
Major Haron Macabanding, Shariff Aguak town police chief, said responding police and civilians rushed the victim to the provincial hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police found seven empty shells for a caliber .45 pistol.
Sermese on Wednesday ordered the creation of a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) to speed up the probe.
He said police are still clueless as to the identities and mastermind behind the killing of Zangkala.
On January 30, gunmen also killed Abobacar Abdul, village chief of Barangay Polloc in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte, and his wife Baisa, in a late afternoon ambush in Barangay Timbangan, also in Parang.
READ: Police eye politics behind murder of village official, wife in Maguindanao del Norte