KIDAPAWAN CITY – Gunmen shot dead a Syrian Islamic teacher and wounded his wife in a daring attack at the victims’ house in Carmen, North Cotabato Friday.
The Carmen police named the fatality only as Sheik Wasif and his wounded ethnic Maguindanaoan Muslim spouse as Tayaan Ambag.
Wasif, a Muslim missionary from Syria, was a theology teacher in a Madrasah (Arabic school) in Barangay Manarapan and residing with his wife in Barangay Nasapian.
Barangays Manarapan and Nasapian, both in Carmen, are among the 63 barangays in North Cotabato that now form part of the infant Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The Philippine National Police Regional Office 12 on Saturday said initial reports indicated that the gunmen barged into Wasif’s house and opened fire, killing him on the spot and wounding his wife.
Ambag was taken to the hospital by responding Carmen policemen and barangay officials.
The bereaved kin demanded help from the BARMM government through an “in-depth probe” of the incident.
“The incident must not become part of many unsolved killings in Carmen. BARMM officials can perhaps make the difference. We voted for inclusion in BARMM in the Feb. 6 plebiscite because we want to be safer,” a relative of Ambag said Saturday night.
Chief Supt. Eliseo Rasco, PNP Region 12 director, has reportedly ordered the North Cotabato police to dispatch intelligence agents to Carmen to help investigate the incident. (Ali Macabalang)
