A BOMB-MAKER and grandson of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron was slain in a firefight with government troops on Saturday night in Talipao town in Sulu, a military commander said on Sunday.
The fatality, identified only as alias “Vikram,” figured in last Friday’s clash in the adjacent Patikul town that left 11 soldiers dead and 14 other troops injured, said AFP Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana.
Sobejana also said Vikram manufactured the bombs that were detonated by an Indonesian couple during a suicide bombing at the Mt. Carmel Cathedral in Jolo town, also in Sulu, in January last year. The explosion left 23 people dead, including the couple.
Sobejana said troops under the Joint Task Force Sulu were on pursuit operation when they intercepted Vikram and an unidentified companion, aboard a motorcycle, in Barangay Bilaan in Talipao at around 9:45 p.m.
Sobejana said Vikram and his companion opened fire at the soldiers who retaliated, leading to the demise of Sahiron’s kin. The companion managed to flee.
Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, commander of the military’s Joint Task Force Sulu, said Vikram
also manufactured the bomb used in the suicide attack at the headquarters of the Army’s 1st Brigade Combat Team in Indanan town, also in Sulu, in June last year. The attack claimed the lives of three soldiers, two civilians and the two suicide bombers.
Sobejana said Vikram and his companion were trying to evade a “substantial number of troops” who were pursuing the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf members involved in last Friday’s firefight with forces of the Army’s 21st Infantry Battalion.
Sobejana said last Friday’s debacle has motivated the military to finally end the Abu Sayyaf.
The bandit group notorious for kidnapping hostages has about 300 members, about 200 of them in Sulu and led by Sahiron and Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan.
