2 illegal gun dealers killed in Sultan Kudarat entrapment operation

COTABATO CITY— Policemen shot dead two long wanted illegal gun dealers in an entrapment operation that turned haywire in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat on Monday.

Brig. Gen. Jimili Lopez Macaraeg, director of the Police Regional Office-12, on Tuesday identified the slain suspects as Abdullazis Sidik Bukakong and his accomplice Alimudin Andong Tayan, who died on the spot from bullet wounds sustained in the brief shootout.

A report from the Lambayong Municipal Police Station stated that Bukakong was a member of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters while Tayan belonged to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, something that puzzled probers, knowing that both groups are hostile to each other.

Macaraeg said that the duo pulled out guns and opened fire when they sensed that they had sold two bolt-action 7.62 millimeter sniper rifles to plainclothes policemen in clandestine tradeoff along a secluded stretch of a highway in Barangay Didtaras in Lambayong.

The police director said that the entrapment operation that turned awry was laid together by the combined personnel of the Lambayong MPS and the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police and PRO-12 intelligence operatives.

Besides the two assault rifles, policemen also impounded the motorcycle of the suspects that they reportedly used in transporting firearms to buyers in Lambayong and nearby towns in Sultan Kudarat.