POLICE in Marawi City and in Lanao del Sur, backed by the Armed Forces, have launched massive manhunt against the prisoners who fled the province’s provincial jail after heavily armed men swooped down on the jail facility at 5:45 pm Saturday.
According to Chief Supt. Agripino Javier, police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, among those who escaped were eight members of Maute armed group, including three women.
Javier said an estimated 50 men equipped with high-powered firearms stormed the jail.
Javier said the armed men, believed to be followers of a terrorist group, also abducted Jail Officer Modasir Manwang and used him and 20 other inmates as human shields whom the attackers later released in Barangay Caloocan, Marawi City.
The eight Maute group members were jailed for illegal drugs and other crimes committed in Marawi City.
Witnesses said the suspects also took from the provincial jail an M-16 Armalite rifle and a Mitsubishi car.
After releasing the inmates, the attackers herded the eight Maute group members and boarded a waiting motorized banca and set off across Lake Lanao in the dark.
Javier has appealed to residents of Lanao del Sur to help the police in locating the suspects and the inmates. He also called on the local executives of the towns surrounding Lake Lanao to provide the police with information in order to capture the fugitives.
A statement from the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica) in Region 10 said the armed men were allegedly led by Abdullah Maute.
It said all intelligence units have been directed to “enhance monitoring” and that photographs and plate numbers of their getaway vehicles have been distributed to police checkpoints in the region.
Two Mondays ago, Army troops and policemen intercepted a Tamaraw FX van allegedly carrying explosives in Barangay Nanagun, Lumbayanague, Lanao del Sur.
Maj. Felimon Tan, spokesperson of the Armed Forces Western Command said the soldiers arrested eight persons in the van, among them three women.
Tan said the troops found an improvised explosive device (IED) made of an 81-mm mortar attached to two other pipe bombs and triggering devices inside the Tamaraw vehicle.
Tan said they believed the suspects intended to target either the camp of Army 103rd Infantry Brigade in Marawi City; Iligan City or Cagayan de Oro, which is celebrating its fiesta on August 28.
The military identified those arrested as Hashim Balawag Maute, Abdul Jabbar Tominaman Macabading, Jamil Batoa Amerul, Muhammad Sianodin Mulok and Omar Khalil.
The arrested women were identified as Hafidah Romato Maute, Nasifa Pandug and Norhanna Balawag Maute.
Tan said the group was on the way to Marawi City from Butig town in Lanao del Sur when troops, acting on intelligence report, blocked them at the checkpoint in Barangay Nanagun.
“The fast reaction of troops and the information of concerned citizens was the key for thwarting a terror attack intended to kill innocent people in populated target areas. IEDs do not select its victims, children, Christians or Muslims, young and old, lahat papatayin niyan and in a wide scale kaya napakalaking bagay na hindi natuloy ito dahil na din sa cooperation ng taong bayan at responde ng sundalo at pulis,” Tan said in a statement.
The Maute group pledged allegiance to the Isis (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) banner and is responsible for several attacks on Army detachments in Lanao del Sur.
In April, the group beheaded two lumberyard workers they earlier took captive, after the ransom they demanded was not paid. (reports from pna, and froilan gallardo with a report from ferdinandh cabrera of mindanews)
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