INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
CAMP SK PENDATUN, Maguindanao del Norte — Four persons, including a police officer, were injured when two warring Moro gunmen traded shots on Tuesday night for about an hour in the town center of Malabang in Lanao del Sur.
In his report to the Lanao del Sur provincial police office, Captain Jerome Baliuag, deputy chief of Malabang municipal police station, said the firefight erupted about 9 p.m. amid light rains, sending civilians to seek cover inside their homes.
The fighting ended at 10:05 p.m., said Baliuag.
The clashes involving two warring families occurred in between Barangay Tubok and Barangay Chinatown in Malabang.
Baliuag identified the injured as Police Patrolman Abosali Balindong, Mikel Maliga, Abdullah Minalang, and Smasodin Dilawan, all residents of Poblacion, Malabang.
As of Wednesday, police are still verifying reports that an elderly woman died of a heart attack at the height of the skirmishes.
“The fighting was between some residents of Barangay Tubok and Barangay Chinatown,” Baliuag said.
Fighting ended when police personnel and soldiers arrived.
They then rushed those injured to the Dr. Serapio Montañer Hospital, also in Malabang.
A resident, Naim Abu Mohammad, shared on social media a photo of an unexploded rifle grenade that landed at the makeshift stall in Barangay Paser Pantalan.
Mohammad posted the image to call the attention of bomb experts for immediate disposal of the grenade. “(We) need bomb experts to safely remove it soonest because it is dangerous,” he said.
Clearing operation is ongoing as of Wednesday morning.
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