COTABATO CITY (Monday, September 1, 2025) — Policemen arrested the wife of a Dawlah Islamiya leader, handling funds for procurement of components for improvised explosive devices obtainable in local establishments, in an operation near the Cotabato Airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte on Monday morning, September 1.

The 31-year-old Jasmiya Camsa Ibrahim, a resident of Sitio Nakan in Barangay Kapaya in Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat, yielded peacefully when a police team showed her copies of warrants for her arrest for possession of firearms, explosives and for coddling wanted members of the Dawlah Islamiya while she was at the premises of the Cotabato Airport in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Monday afternoon that the operation that led to the arrest of Ibrahim, long subject of surveillance, was jointly carried out by personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station, led by Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, and officials of different units of PRO-BAR.

De Guzman said intelligence agents from the Cotabato City Police Office, led by their director, Col, Jibin Bongcayao, and intelligence agents from the Army’s 6th Infantry Division also supported the anti-terror operation, premised on reports by confidential informants who spotted Ibrahim at one spot near the Cotabato Airport.

Moro traditional leaders in Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte provinces had confirmed to reporters that Ibrahim is one of the four wives of the wanted Abu Suffian, tagged as mastermind in the December 31, 2018 bombing in the Southseas Mall in Cotabato City that killed two shoppers and left more than 10 others injured.

Abu Suffian is a henchman of Salahuddin Hassan, the remaining leader of the now weakened Dawlah Islamiya, known for fomenting hatred for non-Muslims and implicated in more than 30 bombings, since 2015, or buses and commercial establishments after owners refused to shell out protection money.

Officials of Army and PRO-BAR intelligence units said Ibrahim handles the funds of the Dawlah Islamiya earmarked for procurement of ammunition and ammonium nitrate and potassium chlorate that its members use as blasting charges for IEDs rigged with blasting contraptions that can be detonated from a distance using mobile phones.