25 January 2012

High seas massacre


Gunmen mercilessly strafed at least 15 fishermen in a grisly massacre on the high seas off Basilan, with a police official saying investigation is under way to identify and hunt down the perpetrators.
Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) regional police, said they are banking on the testimony of the three survivors of the attack that occurred at around 7 a.m. Monday some 10 nautical miles away from Basilan.
“We still don’t know who the perpetrators are and why these fishermen were attacked, but investigation is ongoing,” said Latag in a phone interview.

Latag admitted difficulties in the conduct of the investigation as it happened on the high seas but he said they are pinning their hopes on the three survivors, one of them identified as 22-year-old Jerome Lunsol, to give them the idea as to who strafed the fishing boats they were riding in.
The initial conduct of the investigation revealed that a total of 18 fishermen were on board three fishing boats when gunmen on board three small watercrafts started shooting them some 10 nautical miles away off the Sibago Island in Mohammad Ajul town in Basilan.
Most of the victims are reportedly residents of Zamboanga del Sur.
The attackers, on the other hand, were on board what locals call a “Pakura-type” watercraft. Each water craft carries a maximum of two persons.
Latag said all the fishermen on board the first fishing boat that was strafed were killed while five others died in the second vessel. Three others, he added, died in the third fishing boat.
Latag said there are two survivors from the second fishing boat while another one from the third boat.
“We learned about this when another group of fishermen passed by the area,” said Latag.
“They were the ones who picked up the 15 dead fishermen and rescued the three others,” he added.
Lunsol, who suffered a bullet wound in the head and at the back, was taken to the Zamboanga General Hospital while the two other wounded victims are now confined in a hospital in Pagadian City.
Asked if the Abu Sayyaf is responsible for the attack as the area is known routes of the bandits in going to mainland Mindanao, Latag said it is early to point the blame to the group, saying it is also a possibility that sea pirates perpetrated the massacre. (With reports from Elena L. Aben and Nonoy E. Lacson)
By AARON B. RECUENCO
mb.com.ph

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