‘Maute Group member’ nabbed in Lanao Sur evacuation center

Saguiaran town in Lanao del Sur (Google maps)

COTABATO CITY – Police have arrested an alleged member of the Maute terror group in an evacuation center in Saguiaran town in Lanao del Sur.

Chief Supt. Reuben Sindac, police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PRO-ARMM), said Lala Arafat, 38, was arrested last Sunday after being positively identified by evacuees as followers of siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute.

“He did not resist arrest but denied he was a Maute member,” Sindac said in a statement.

The Maute brothers were founders of Dawlah Islamiya or the terror group – the Maute terror group which has pledged allegiance to ISIS.

Arafat, a resident of Barangay Osmeña, Marawi City, was collared by police while inside an evacuation center in Saguiaran. He was said to be posing as an internally displaced person, getting aid from government and other organizations.  The term internally displaced person is used to describe a Filipino civilian citizen forced to evacuate from insurgency wars.

Sindac said the local police was alerted by evacuees who noticed Arafat mingling with them and kept on talking about the Maute group’s stance in the siege.

In his possession were 12 identification cards carrying different names. He was unarmed.  SFM