 Two masked gunmen killed the Muslim sultan of Maguindanao and wounded his brother in an ambush in the southern Philippines, police said yesterday, warning of a potential clan war in the area. Local police chief Inspector Rick Masla said Datu Amir Baraguir and his brother, Andy, were walking home on Wednesday evening in Sultan Kudarat town when two men on a motorcycle shot them with pistols.
| If he and his brother Andy were walking home, he doesn't sound like your run-of-the-mill Muslim potentate... |
âThe sultan did not reach the hospital alive,â said Masla. âWeâre still trying to investigate the motive for the shooting. Weâre hoping the sultanâs death would not stir up a clan war.â
| If anything does, I'd it expect this to be it... |
Baraguir, 45, ascended a year ago to the Sultanate of Maguindanao, one of several Muslim royal houses in the troubled south. Police said Baraguir was known as a moderate Islamic leader and an advocate of self-determination for Muslims in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country, supporting proposals to revise the constitution and move to a parliamentary system. Before he was enthroned as the 25th sultan, Baraguir wrote a newspaper column and hosted a community radio program promoting peaceful coexistence among Christian, Muslim and mountain tribes on the island of Mindanao.
| That's always a good way to get yourself assisted from the gene pool when there are turbans around... |
His columns and radio commentaries attacked extremist Muslim groups, earning the ire of separatist Islamist guerrillas seeking an independent state.
| Now, let's think real hard and guess who dunnit... |
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