2 Tajikistan nationals nabbed over suspicious stay in Marawi City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two Tajikistan nationals residing in Marawi City several weeks ago were arrested and detained in a joint law-enforcement operation of the Bureau of Immigration and different units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous on Friday, April 17.

Officials of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and local executives in Marawi City confirmed to reporters on Saturday the arrest, the day before, of the two foreigners, Safaroy Jomi, 21, and his 22-year-old compatriot, Alimov Abubakr, whose presence in the area was earlier reported by villagers and traditional Maranao leaders to law-enforcement agencies in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Saturday morning that Jomi and Abubakr yielded peacefully when immigration agents, led by Charles Elmerson Oamil, and policemen from different units under Col. Ceasar Cabuhat, director of Lanao del Sur provincial police, arrived at their boarding house in Barangay Lomidong in Marawi City to arrest them.

Local executives and Maranao Islamic preachers said they reported to PRO-BAR officials and to their units in Marawi City and to the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) the presence of the duo in Barangay Lomidong after villagers asked them to investigate their purpose of staying in the area, contacting certain individuals in towns around.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and NICA also supported the operation that led to the arrest of the two foreigners.

“Good enough local executives and traditional Maranao leaders helped police officials and employees of the Bureau of Immigration locate them in Marawi City,” De Guzman said.

De Guzman and Cabuhat had separately said that Jomi and Abubakr had assured to cooperate with the investigation by immigration officials and PRO-BAR units on their activities in Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur, one of the five provinces in BARMM.