Manila, Oct. 1 -- Police authorities in Maguindanao del Sur are pursuing an armed group that allegedly decapitated a tribal leader in a remote village in Datu Hoffer Ampatuan town on Tuesday afternoon.

In an interview with reporters on Wednesday, Col. Sultan Salman Sapal, Maguindanao del Sur provincial police director, said he has ordered the Datu Hoffer Ampatuan municipal police station to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

"The indigenous peoples' (IP) tribal leader, Nel Lupos, was allegedly beheaded by still unidentified armed men," Sapal said.

Lupos, a former village councilor of Barangay Mantao, Datu Hoffer Ampatuan, and currently residing in Barangay Limpongo of the same town, was found dead beside a dirt road at ...