7 dead in Cotabato shootings

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The death toll in the series of shooting incidents here that started on Thursday went up to seven, with the death on Saturday of a victim who was initially reported to have been critically wounded.

According to Senior Supt. Rex Anongos, city police director, Barangay Bagua Mother village watchman Omar Abo died while being treated at a hospital.

Abo was critically injured when unidentified armed men attacked the checkpoint he was manning, along with village councilman Misuari Karim and fellow tanods, Mamanta Kalim and Theng Wahab, around 5 p.m. Friday.

Karim, chair of the village’s peace and order committee, Kalim and Wahab were instantly killed in the attack.

The attack was the fifth of such violent incident in the city since Thursday.

Earlier, three men were also killed in four gun-related incidents.

Anongos said personal grudges and the illegal drug problem were the most likely motives for the series of attacks, although the police continue to investigate.

No suspect in the latest spate of violence here has so far been arrested or identified. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao/CDG