COTABATO CITY (Saturday, August 30, 2025) — Two members of local terror groups were killed in a clash with soldiers they shot with pistols for trying to stop them for a peaceful routine inspection at a checkpoint in Barangay Tuka in Mamasapano, Maguindanao del Sur on Friday, August 29, 2025.

Captain Giuseppe Tamayo, spokesperson of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office, and officials of the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade told reporters on Saturday, August 30, that the motorcycle-riding Muha Gamba and Nasser Akmad both died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in their brief gunfight with personnel of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and the commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, had separately said that soldiers at a checkpoint in Barangay Tuka were forced to neutralize the uncooperative Gamba and Akmad when they pulled out guns and grenades and opened fire.

Local executives in Mamasapano and in nearby towns had confirmed that Gamba and Akmad are members of both the Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Policemen and community leaders who responded to the incident found beside the cadavers of Gamba and Akmad .45 caliber pistols, a fragmentation grenade and an M1 Garand rifle wrapped in cloth and rice sack.

The 33rd IB and units of PRO-BAR in Maguindanao del Sur are guarding against possible retaliation by companions of Gamba and Akmad in both the Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF.

Photo shows a police forensic experts inspecting the scene of the gunfight that left two local terrorists dead.