Rights group member shot dead in Agusan del Sur

DAVAO CITY — A 60-year-old man affiliated with the group Kahugpungan alang sa Kalambuan (Kasaka) has been gunned down in barangay (village) Kauswagan in Loreto town in Agusan del Sur, the human rights group Karapatan reported Friday.

Karapatan said Gabriel Alindao was on his way home for lunch Thursday after joining the peace and development activity Bayanihan of the 26th Infantry Battalion in their community when he was gunned down near the Kauswagan Elementary School in the said barangay.

Hanimay Suazo, Karapatan secretary-general in Southern Mindanao, said soldiers have been camping in the area since July 19, after communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels reportedly killed the Kauswagan barangay captain.  Suazo said three youths were picked up allegedly by the military on suspicion they were rebels.
Suazo also said that Alindao, a resident of purok LBC (Lumad, Bol-anon and Cebuano) in Kauswagan was earlier accused of being an NPA sympathizer by the soldiers and that he joined the Bayanihan activity to prove that he can work well with people in the community.