Times of India: Deathsquads ‘target’ manila moneylenders

India’s top newspaper is reporting that assassin like death squads have been killing moneylenders in a spree of violence that may fed by bad economic times fueling crime or what is suggested that a ‘group’ is marking Indian moneylenders for liquidation in the capital of manila. “The number of Punjabis killed in the Philippines has risen to nearly a dozen this year.” is the claim of the newspaper which is one of the largest in the subcontinent.

[] “… Two more Punjabis killed in Philippines

Times of India, India - JALANDHAR: Two more Punjabis, both in money-lending businesses, have been killed in the Philippines. …” []

If this is a ‘death squad’ related activity this marks the first report of foreign nationals targeted in the wave of killings of activists, journalists, and, government workers and soldiers gunned down in assassination style ‘liquidations that may bear the hallmark of a larger scale effort to target groups of people across a wide spectrum of Philippine society.

But what is strange is the targets, The mostly Punjabi money lenders - provide a major level of street credit to people who for the most part would never be able to get loans from banks or formal lending institutions.

It also marks the first foreign group aside from a pair of Americans killed in Cebu in assassin styled killings to be among those ‘hit’.