By Joseph Jubelag
MATALAM, North Cotabato – Seven suspected drug traffickers were killed in an encounter with police and military operatives who raided their hideout in Barangay Kilada, this municipality, last Friday.
Supt. Bernard Tayong, spokesperson of the Cotabato police, said combined personnel from the Cotabato Provincial Police Office and Army 7th Infantry Battalion were about to serve a search warrant on the house of Intan Aban and Dadting Kasan, believed to be members of a big-time drug syndicate operating in the province, when the suspects engaged authorities in a fierce gunfight which lasted for almost one hour.
After the smoke of the battle cleared, seven suspected drug pushers were killed while two others were arrested.
The slain suspects were identified as Dadting Kasan, 45; Moner Kasan, 22; Mohamiden Kasan, 25; Ding Kasan, Usop Mantis, Mujahid Mantis, and a certain alias “Abu.”