Ustadz Khabir Malik's ATM Card. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)
Following three weeks of intense military operations and the government’s failure to capture of a top rebel commander, who led a simultaneous attack in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines, security officials now claimed to have recovered his identification card from one of the slain raiders.
Army Major Angelo Guzman, the military’s deputy public affairs chief, said they are checking whether the cadaver belongs to Ustadz Khabir Malik, a lieutenant of Moro National Liberation Front chieftain Nur Misuari, who led the September 9 assault in villages here.
Public criticisms are mounting after the military failed to capture or kill Malik despite an overpowering assault that resulted in the burning of thousands of houses in the villages of Santa Catalina and Santa Barbara.
One intelligence source has told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner that Malik may have already escaped from a military dragnet on the second week of fighting after negotiations for their surrender failed. Malik reportedly escaped on a speedboat with his trusted men and left behind a rag-tag army of fighters to hold off advancing security forces.
It was not immediately known whether Malik - who is facing rebellion charges along with his men - has returned to Sulu province or sought safe refuge in nearby Basilan province. The report cannot be independently confirmed, but security officials, quoting former hostages freed by rebels said Malik is still in Zamboanga.
The rebels launched the attack after Misuari accused the Aquino government of reneging on a peace accord signed 17 years ago. After the peace agreement was signed, Misuari became the governor of Muslim autonomous region. But he and many former rebels were disgruntled with the accord, saying, the government failed to comply with some of its provisions and uplift their standards of living.
They accused the government of failing to develop the war-torn areas in the South, which remain in mired in poverty, heavily militarized and dependent financially on Manila.
Misuari remains in hiding and was last reported to be hiding on the islands surrounding Tongkil town and is reportedly planning to escape to Malaysia or Indonesia and travel to a Muslim country to seek political asylum after Manila included him in rebellion charges along with Malik’s group, according to another intelligence source.
There were also reports that Malik’s relatives have seized Misuari and blamed him for the deaths of many MNLF fighters in Zamboanga City.
In November 2001, on the eve of the elections in the autonomous region, Misuari also accused the government of reneging on the peace agreement, and his followers launched a new rebellion in Sulu and Zamboanga City, where more than 100 people were killed.
Misuari escaped by boat to Malaysia, but was arrested there and deported to the Philippines. He was eventually freed in 2008 after Manila dropped all charges against him for lack of sufficient evidence.
The fighting forced over 100,000 people to flee their homes for fear they would be caught in the crossfire or captured by rebels and use as shield against military forces. More than 400 were killed and wounded in the fighting in Zamboanga.
The military said clearing operations still continue in at least 5 villages where rebels occupied.
Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar said the spates of events that unfolded and continue to unfold in Zamboanga are very heartbreaking and upsetting. “Homes have been destroyed, lives have been broken and dreams have been lost. Zamboanga City paid a high cost to defend our freedom, independence and sovereignty, and our heart goes out to the residents of Zamboanga, to the families and children who remain in distress and who live in fear for their present and for their future,” she said.
Salazar added: “Our hearts go out to the fallen soldiers and policemen who gave up their lives for this fight, to every wife who lost a husband, to every child who lost a father and to parents who lost a son. Through all this, Zamboanga City remains undaunted and undefeated. As we prepare to take the long road to recovery, we call on every Filipino to help pick up the pieces left in the wake of this tragedy.”
http://mindanaoexaminer.blogspot.com/2013/09/rebel-leader-who-led-zamboanga-assault.html
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