SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao – A village councilor was shot dead by still unidentified gunmen in Ampatuan, Maguindanao on Tuesday night, police said.

Senior Superintendent Alex Lineses, acting Maguindanao police chief, said Talib Salahuddin, a barangay councilor of Kakal, Ampatuan, was shot while he was walking home at 6 p.m.

“He died on the spot from a gunshot wound in the head,” Lineses told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Lineses said Salahuddin was identified with the Sangkis of Ampatuan town whose town vice mayor, Rasul Sangki, testified against Andal Ampatuan Jr., the principal accused in the November 23 massacre of 57 people, during his bail hearing.

Before Salahuddin was shot, another man, identified as Doc Uli, was shot dead, also in Ampatuan.

Lineses said they were still checking if the two killings were connected.

But Lineses clarified that Uli was not a relative or supporter of the Sangkis or of the Ampatuans.

The two killings were among the rash of violence that occurred in Maguindanao since the Ampatuans were unseated from power following the November 23 massacre.

There have been reports of house burnings, looting, grenade blasts and banditry in Shariff Aguak and nearby towns.

The house of a barangay chairman in Ampatuan was ransacked by unidentified men who took his valuables, including a laptop computer and mobile phones.