A woman was shot dead in a suspected reprisal over a bomb attack on a powerful Muslim governor in the troubled southern Philippines, military and rebel officials said yesterday. Nora Pakiladatu was gunned down shortly before noon Wednesday in Cotabato City by a lone gunman, field reports reaching the militaryÂ’s Southern Command here in Zamboanga City said. Witnesses told investigators that the attacker walked right to the side of a van carrying the victim and shot her several times at close range with a .45-caliber pistol. Eid "Lipless Eddie" Kabalu, spokesman of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said the victim was the wife of Zaid Pakiladatu, one of two senior commanders of the rebel group who have been linked to the June 23 murder attempt on Maguindanao provincial Gov. Andal Ampatuan. Ampatuan survived the bomb attack in downtown in Shariff Aguak but six others, including one of his nephews, were killed.
Fourteen others, mostly bystanders, were injured in the blast blamed by the military and police on Zaid Pakiladatu and Jamil Ombra, commander of the MILFÂ’s 105th Base Command. Pakiladatu is OmbraÂ’s deputy. Kabalu said PakiladatuÂ’s wife was on her way to a mosque when she was shot inside her van in the busy business district of Cotabato. The attack came just hours after Zaid, in a radio interview in Cotabato, denied any involvement in the June 23 bombing.