Alleged JI member shot dead by police in Davao City

DAVAO CITY — A foreigner suspected to be a member of the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiya was shot dead by police authorities here as he was allegedly trying to detonate an improvised explosive device on Friday evening.

Senior Superintendent Ronald dela Rosa, city police chief, identified the slain suspect as Mohammad Noor Fikrie Bin Abd Kahar, a Malaysian.

Dela Rosa said Kahar and his Filipina wife, Anabel Lee, were checking out of the Sampaguita Hotel along Camus Extension when police — who were alerted following suspicions they might be carrying a bomb — arrived.

He said the couple put up a chase when authorities tried to accost them. Kahar was cornered near the People’s Park, some 100 meters from the hotel and tried to detonate a bomb tucked into a backpack.

Dela Rosa said because the suspect was hostile, the police had to shoot him down.

Lee was taken into custody and is still being interrogated, Dela Rosa said.