COTABATO CITY (October 23, 2025) — A barangay councilor involved in Islamic missionary works was shot dead on Tuesday morning, October 21, in Lamitan City, Basilan by two men both arrested by pursuing policemen just a few minutes after perpetrating the atrocity.
The 40-year-old Muslim preacher Nadzri Asdana Tarahin, a member of the barangay council in Baguindan in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan was at the Lamitan City public terminal, about to board a bus bound for Isabela City, when two men armed with pistols approached him and opened fire, killing him instantly.
Local executives and investigators from the Lamitan City Police Station said at noon Monday that the gunmen who killed Tarahin and their companions immediately escaped using a getaway black Toyota Hilux pick-up truck and a white motorcycle without a license plate.
The Basilan Provincial Police Office had reported to Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, that the two assailants of Tarahin, Toh Lalung Mayyarin Acalul, 41, and his 32-year-old accomplice, Delpi Asanudin Suratan, were cornered in a far-flung area in Lamitan City by the police team that chased them with the help of barangay leaders.
De Guzman, citing reports by his subordinate-officers in Basilan, said the policemen who arrested the duo had seized from each of them a .45 caliber pistol.
De Guzman said he has directed the police officials in Lamitan City to enlist the support of the relatives of the slain Tarahin in filing corresponding criminal cases against the two suspects who are now both locked in a detention facility.
Photo shows the spouse of the fallen Tarahin, grieving over his saddening demise.