After blast, accusations, denials are hurled
MLANG, North Cotabato—A group of Moro rebels, opposed to a peace deal with the government, is denying responsibility for the New Year’s Eve bombing that killed two persons and wounded 33 others here, an attack which the town’s mayor insisted was the work of the renegades.
According to Abu Misry Mama, spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the bomb used in the attack came from Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao province.
But the spokesperson said his group is not behind the attack.
“We don’t have a hand in it but we know where the bomb came from,” said Mama, adding that the improvised explosive device was manufactured in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat.
The military’s 6th Infantry Division is in the village of Awang.
Mama refused to say who he believed was behind the attack at the public market here, which was packed with people buying food for media noche, a traditional family gathering to greet the New Year, during the explosion.
Mayor Joselito Piñol, however, said he is convinced that the BIFF is behind the attack, the second to hit the town since November.
“No matter how they deny it, all indications point to the group as the perpetrator,” the mayor said.
Piñol said results of investigation linked the bombing to the arrest of one of the suspects in the Nov. 23 explosion at a billiard hall near the town plaza here, which killed three teenagers and wounded 22 others.
“It was a retaliatory attack after one of the Nov. 23 bombing suspect was arrested by police intelligence agents,” said Piñol.
Supt. Danilo Peralta, North Cotabato police chief, said he, too, believed that BIFF was behind the attack.
“Our policemen arrested one suspect on Tuesday for his role in the Nov. 23 bombing and his companions retaliated,” Peralta said, referring to Abdul Aziz Glang, an alleged member of the Al-Khobar extortion group.
Piñol said Al-Khobar is affiliated with BIFF.
Mama insisted that BIFF, a group of Moro guerrillas who broke ties with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to protest the MILF peace deal with the government, does not attack civilians. “Only the Army,” he said. Williamor Magbanua and Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao
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