Pregnant mom dies in Maguindanao explosion

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 16, 2020): Pregnant mom dies in Maguindanao explosion (By Edwin Fernandez)  

Google map of Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Maguindanao.

Police and military authorities have launched an investigation into the reported mortar shelling in Maguindanao that left a pregnant woman dead on Tuesday evening.

The explosion occurred in Barangay Pusao of Shariff Saydona Mustapha town at about 10 p.m., according to Mursid Mamolintao, the victim’s brother-in-law.

He identified the victim as Rabiyah Damada Lakim, 37, who was declared dead on arrival at the Maguindanao provincial hospital in nearby Shariff Aguak town.

Mamolintao could not specifically say where the rifle grenade or the mortar came from, although he said government forces and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) have been trading bullets and mortars in Shariff Saydona.

“We heard some six explosions before the one that hit my sister-in-law,” Mamolintao said in the vernacular over a radio interview here Wednesday.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of Army’s 6th Infantry Division and Brig. Gen. Samuel Rodriguez, police director for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), have ordered police and military units to probe the incident.

Earlier, six civilians were injured, including three children, when a rifle grenade landed on the roof of a house in Datu Salibo, Maguindanao.

Local police in Datu Salibo could not say where the explosives emanated from, although authorities said militants and government forces have been fighting near the peripheries of their town and those of neighboring Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Mamasapano, and Shariff Aguak municipalities.

The three towns are situated near the vast Liguasan marshland, where the BIFF is known to operate.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1124883