Bombing suspect nabbed at BOL event

CHAOS Policemen secure South Seas Mall in Cotabato City following a bombing that left two people dead last New Year’s Eve. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

COTABATO CITY — Government security forces captured two suspected Islamic State (IS) followers blamed in deadly bomb attacks in the region ahead of a vote next week on Muslim autonomy in Mindanao.

Datu Mohalidin Usman, 25, who was identified as one of the suspects in the New Year’s Eve explosion outside South Seas Mall that left two people dead and more than 30 others wounded, was arrested at the grand rally for the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) on Friday at Shariff Kabunsuan Complex, said Chief Insp. Efren Salazar Jr. of the city police.

Police said Usman was disguised as a member of the secretariat of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) but he was recognized by soldiers and policemen guarding the event attended by President Duterte.

“He was using several names. He did not resist arrest,” Salazar said, adding that the suspect was now under the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for further investigation.

Unholy alliances

Usman’s family denied his involvement in the bombing.

Police, however, cited reports that he belonged to the group of Esmail Sheikh Abdulmalik, also known as Commander Abu Turaife, leader of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a splinter group of the MILF that signed a peace deal with the government.

Turaife’s group split from the MILF when it signed a peace deal with Manila four years ago.

He broke away from the rebel chain of command and led his followers, who numbered in the few dozens, to press on with the fight for a separate Moro republic.

Turaife had pledged allegiance to IS, but did not send guerrillas to fight in Marawi City.