2 hurt in separate grenade attacks in Maguindanao, North Cotabato

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 7): 2 hurt in separate grenade attacks in Maguindanao, North Cotabato

A Muslim couple was hurt when motorcycle-riding men fired fragmentation grenades in three different areas in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao Wednesday, the Army said here Thursday.

Colonel Dickson Hermoso, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said another grenade attack also hit the Cotabato City house of a town treasurer in Maguindanao but nobody was hurt.

Two powerful improvised explosive devices were defused by Army bomb experts in Mlang, North Cotabato on Wednesday night.

Hermoso said two men riding in tandem on a motorbike tossed a hand grenade at the residential house of Norodin Samaon on Oblate Village, Barangay Rosary Heights 4, Cotabato City at about 8:00 p.m. Samaon is the municipal treasurer of Talitay, Maguindanao.

Another grenade was found at the main gate of Samaon’s house and was safely defused by bomb experts.

Eight hours earlier, four rifle grenades were fired by still unidentified men in three areas in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, according to Senior Supt. Rodelio Jocson, Maguindanao police director.

Two rifle grenades landed in the roof of Ali Silongan Kuli, 40 and exploded at about 10:00 a.m. Kuli and his wife Hanna were slightly wounded.

Another rifle grenade was found at a vacant lot in Barangay Poblacion Shariff Aguak.

While the police and Army were defusing the grenade, another rifle grenade fired from M-203 grenade rifle fired from nowhere landed in another vacant lot, about 400 meters away.

Supt. Jocson said no one has claimed responsibility and police remained clueless on the motive of the grenade attacks.

It came while the police and Army are implementing election gun ban and Maguindanao still under state of emergency in the aftermath of 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

In Mlang, North Cotabato, an alert balut vendor prevented what could have been a bloody Wednesday night when his alertness brought him to an unattended bag at a roadside.

Police Inspector Rolando Dillera, deputy town police chief, said the vendor noticed that a man alighted from a passenger jeep near a restaurant. The man was carrying a back pack which he put down in a dimly lit area then boarded another vehicle.

Dillera said the vendor approached the bag, checked on it and found two 60 mm mortars inside. He then alerted the police who cordoned off the area until bomb experts arrived and properly defused the explosives.

Police found two 60 mortars with blasting caps and mechanical clock as trigger mechanism. No one has claimed responsibility and investigators remained clueless on the motive of the bombing attempt.

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