COTABATO CITY --- A wanted commander in the now defunct Dawlah Islamiya and three of his companions were killed in a shootout with policemen in Barangay Tapayan in Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao del Norte on Friday, October 16.

Agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, backed by personnel of the 2nd Marine Rifle Battalion of the Navy's 1st Marine Brigade and operatives from different units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, were to peacefully serve Yusa Ganoy six different warrants of arrest at his hideout in Sitio Masagana in Barangay Tapayan, but he and his companions pulled out guns and opened fire, provoking a gunfight.

Police Brig. Gen. Christopher Abecia, director of PRO-BAR, and Army Brig. Ricky Bunayog, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division covering all towns in Maguindanao del Norte, separately confirmed on Saturday that the operation that turned haywire left Ganoy and his three companions dead.

Local executives in Sultan Mastura and in towns around had separately told reporters that Ganoy and his followers were also known for their extortion activities, victimizing helpless traders and owners of passenger vehicles in areas where they roam around during the height of the terror activities in Central Mindanao of the Dawlah Islamiya, now nonfunctional owing to the surrender of 1,906 members, in batches, to units of PRO-BAR and the 6th ID in the past five years.

Ganoy, a known leader of a group in the now inactive Dawlah Islamiya, was charged with multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder, destructive arson, drug trafficking and extortion in different courts in Maguindanao del Sur province in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and in Cotabato City, BARMM’s regional capital.

“According to reports reaching our headquarters and information relayed by local executives supporting our anti-terror efforts, the four of them resisted arrest and provoked an encounter,” said Bunayog, who is based in Camp Gonzalo Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.

CIDG officials in BARMM had told reporters it was villagers in Sultan Mastura, one of the 12 towns in Maguindanao del Norte, who helped their agents locate Ganoy in Barangay Tapayan in the municipality.