Grenade blast kills 1, hurts 5 in Maguindanao del Sur

Maguindanao del Sur map. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

PARANG, Maguindanao del Norte — A farmer was killed while five others were injured when unidentified men on Friday tossed a fragmentation grenade inside a makeshift kitchen where the victims were preparing food, police said.

Brigadier General Allan Nobleza, police director of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) based in this town, has condemned the attack in Sitio Mafran, Barangay Pilar of South Upi town, Maguindanao del Sur.

Citing a report from the South Upi municipal police, Nobleza identified the fatality as Nestor Amborgo Jr., a farmer who was killed on the spot due to shrapnel injuries.

Five others were injured and are now undergoing treatment at a local hospital. They are Jem Amborgo, 30, Joem Sentina, 33, Alvin Caurin, 37, Jemboy Denuman, 45, and Jimrod Mutha, 43, all residents of Barangay Pilar.

“It was supposedly in preparation for a happy celebration of christening, now we are mourning,” Edita Suenan, a resident of Barangay Pilar, said in the vernacular during a radio interview.

Police said the victims were preparing food for Saturday’s baptism of a relative when a fragmentation grenade was lobbed by still-unidentified men around 12:30 a.m. on Friday.

Police investigators are looking at the possibility the attack was fueled by a personal grudge.

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