02 March 2016•Update: 04 March 2016
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines
Philippine authorities have set up a joint task force to investigate an attack wounded a Saudi Islamic scholar and a religious attache to the kingdom’s embassy after a university lecture in the archipelago’s south.
A police spokesperson in Zamboanga, a predominantly Christian city in the majority Muslim southern region, said Wednesday that police and military personnel would make up Special Investigation Task Group WMSU.
The task force is named after Western Mindanao State University, where Dr. Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni, a renowned international lecturer and author, and Sheikh Turki Assaegh were shot by a gunman who was later killed by al-Qarni’s security entourage Tuesday night.
Senior Inspector Helen Galvez was quoted by GMA News Wednesday as saying that the slain suspect had been identified as a 21-year-old WMSU senior engineering student, Rugasan Misuari III, who had attended the forum at the university’s gymnasium.
The police spokesperson added that two of Misuari’s companions have been called for questioning over possible involvement in the attack, the motive for which remains under investigation.
She also confirmed that Saudi Arabia’s government had sent a plane to transport al-Qarni – who has 12 million followers on Twitter – to Manila to undergo further treatment.
Meanwhile, Zamboanga Police Superintendent Luisito Magnaye denied reports of the victims succumbing to their gunshot wounds, which had been sustained while they were bidding farewell from a vehicle after the forum.
"They [victims] are out of danger. There is no truth to them expiring in the hospital," Magnaye told reporters Wednesday.
According to an updated report by the city’s police office, investigators found a motorcycle near the university’s gate.
"Recovered inside the tool or u-box of the motorcycle were a resident certificate with name Rugasan Misuari III, 21, and some bullets of .45 cal. pistol," it said, confirming that the bullets matched the gun found on the suspect.
Police had reportedly also found what appeared to be a school uniform inside his bag.
The Ulama Council of Zamboanga Peninsula said the forum – which the Muslim group had organized – attracted more than 8,000 attendees – including students and preachers – from different parts of southern Mindanao.
Several armed Muslim groups and a communist insurgency operate in conflict-ridden Mindanao.
The Philippines military is presently battling members of a Moro group (formerly known as the Khilafah Islamiyah Mindanao) with alleged ties to the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah in the southern region.
In the past week, at least 24 militants have been killed.
The militants are seeking to take advantage of the shelving of a law that would have sealed a peace process between the country's one-time largest Moro rebel group and the government.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Vice Chairman for political affairs, Ghadzali Jaafar, claimed last week that armed groups who have been engaged in clashes with government troops in the south since the beginning of the month are dismayed by the failure of President Benigno Aquino III's administration to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
BBL would have implemented a peace deal signed by the government and the MILF in March 2014 – encompassing the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro – bringing 17 years of peace negotiations in Mindanao to a close.
However, the agreement has been shelved during the duration of the country's presidential elections, leading to fears that such "terrorist" groups may try and take advantage of local frustrations to move into the territory.
