Suspect facing 33 criminal cases killed in Sulu shootout

COTABATO CITY — A criminal gang leader, wanted for 33 high-profile cases, was killed in a gunfight with a joint police-Army team attempting to arrest him in Barangay Kapok Punggol, Maimbung, Sulu, on Saturday, August 16.

The commander of the Philippine Army, Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, and Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Sunday, August 17, that the target of the law enforcement operation, Alganer Dahim, died instantly from bullet wounds in different parts of his body.

Local executives and members of the multi-sector Sulu Provincial Peace and Order Council told reporters on Sunday that Dahim, who once belonged to the now-defunct Abu Sayyaf terror group, is one of the gunmen who figured in an encounter with policemen in May 2009 in Maimbung that left the police director then of Sulu, Col. Julasirim Kasim, dead.  

The mission to arrest Dahim turned haywire when he hurled a fragmentation grenade and opened fire at soldiers from the 41st Infantry Battalion of the 11th Infantry Division and personnel of units in Sulu of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region approaching his hideout in Barangay Kapok Punggol in Maimbung, forcing them to return fire, killing him instantly.

Four soldiers were hurt in the grenade explosion, according to senior officials of the 11th ID and PRO-BAR. 

Local officials said Dahim was a large-scale dealer of shabu and had accomplices in Maimbung and Sulu’s nearby Indanan and Parang municipalities.

De Guzman said their intelligence units in Sulu will enlist the help of local officials in identifying Dahim's partners in his shabu peddling activities in the three towns and Jolo, the capital of Sulu.

The operation that resulted in his death was conducted by officials of the 11th ID and the Sulu Provincial Police Office after villagers reported his presence in Barangay Kapok Punggol, roaming freely in the area along with companions, pistols tucked in their waists.

Officials under PRO-BAR and the Police Regional Office-9 said Dahim was charged with multiple kidnapping, multiple murder, armed robbery, extortion and trafficking of narcotics in different courts in Sulu and nearby provinces in the Zamboanga peninsula.