2 blasts hit Cotabato City on eve of Ramadan

Two grenade explosions shook Cotabato City on Tuesday, a day before Muslims in the rest of the country and much of Asia began celebrations marking the holy month of Ramadan.

Police said one person was killed while four others suffered shrapnel injuries when a grenade, apparently fired from a launcher, exploded at Café Florencio on Sinsuat Avenue at 9:15 p.m.

The restaurant manager, Reynaldo Pascua, died hours after he and four others—off-duty soldier Cornelio Inocentes Jr., waiter Bryan Fernando and guests Aileen Coquia and Lynnete Guerra—were taken to Cotabato Regional and Medical Center.

Thirty minutes earlier, a grenade blast rocked Rufu Mañara Street at Barangay (village) Rosary Heights. No one was hurt.

Supt. Rolen Balquin, city police chief, said grenade launchers were used in both attacks, but he could not confirm if only one group was behind these.

Tens of millions across the Muslim world fast from dawn to dusk and strive to be more pious and charitable during Ramadan, which ends with the Eid holiday.

The holy month also began in war-torn Afghanistan with a bomb blast.

Attack on bars

In Indonesia, which has the world’s biggest Muslim population, hardliners use Ramadan as an excuse to attack nightspots and shops that openly sell alcohol, the consumption of which is against Islamic law.

There were fears the situation could be worse this year after a recent upsurge in attacks on religious minorities and nonmainstream Muslims.

Critics say hardliners such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) have been emboldened by the government’s failure to crack down on them and to prevent such attacks.

In the days before Ramadan, there were already reports that the FPI—which led protests that forced pop star Lady Gaga to cancel a concert in Jakarta last year—had started conducting such raids.

“We will take firm action against the circulation of alcohol, naked dancing and prostitution,” Habib Idrus Algadri, head of an FPI group in Depok district outside Jakarta, was quoted as saying in a local newspaper.

He was leading a group of FPI members who seized bottles of alcohol from a shop at the weekend.

Habib Salim Alatas, the head of the FPI’s Jakarta branch, said that 50 members would be sent out to monitor nightspots in the capital every evening.

Civilian spies

“We will send out groups of two to three wearing civilian clothes to spy on sinful activities like the drinking of alcohol taking place around Jakarta during the Ramadan holy month,” Alatas said.

Authorities have also been making a show of cracking down on the illegal sale of alcohol.

At the weekend, police in Jakarta used a steamroller to crush thousands of bottles of homemade alcohol that was being sold in places without licenses, as well as destroying pornographic and pirated DVDs.

For non-Muslims and others in Indonesia who drink alcohol, getting a beer during Ramadan can be a challenge as some bars only want to serve customers they know for fear of being targeted by hardline spies.

Some stop serving alcohol, while others try to keep hardliners away by putting blinds on their windows, serving drinks in mugs instead of glasses and asking customers to sneak in through side doors.

Grenade on stage

In Cotabato City, the explosion at Café Florencio occurred after the grenade landed on a stage where a band was performing.

Balquin, the city police chief, said investigators were looking for four restaurant customers who had figured in an altercation and hurriedly left shortly before the blast.

The day before, a grenade went off at the back of a fast-food outlet, also on Sinsuat Avenue. No one was hurt.

“We have no evidence the explosions are related to the fasting month,” Balquin said.

The explosions also came a day after suspected members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) tried to blow up a bridge in Datu Piang, Maguindanao province. The bridge suffered cracks but remained passable, authorities said.

Balquin could not say whether the attacks in the city were related to skirmishes between government forces and the BIFF in Maguindanao, which had so far claimed the lives of at least six soldiers and 18 BIFF fighters.

Before Ramadan began, authorities ordered a halt in military operations against the rebel splinter group that is seeking to derail peace negotiations between the country’s largest Moro guerrilla force and Manila.

Cotabato City remains on heightened alert, Balquin said.—Reports from Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao; and AFP