Grenade blast kills man, injures another in North Cotabato

Pikit town (outlined in red) in North Cotabato (Image from Google Maps)

PIKIT, North Cotabato – One person was killed while another one was hurt when unidentified men lobbed a hand grenade in front of a store here at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Chief Insp. Romy Castañares, the town police chief, said the blast, believed to be from a fragmentation grenade, occurred in front of Pacalna variety store on Apollo Street in Barangay Poblacion.

Castañares identified the slain victim as Jamil Umraan and the injured as Norodin Pacalna, 35, both residents of Barangay Poblacion.

The victims were rushed to the Cruzado Medical Clinic here, but Umraan died on arrival.

“Pacalna was about to close his store when unidentified men on motorbike lobbed a hand grenade then sped away,” Castañares told the Inquirer.

The motive of the attack remained unknown as of posting.

The attack came a day after a villager was injured in an explosion that ripped through a residential area here before dawn Friday.

The victim, Esmael Guialel, sustained shrapnel wounds after a grenade landed in front of his home at 5 a.m, on Friday, according to Supt. Bernard Tayong, the spokesperson of the North Cotabato Provincial Police Office.

The suspects also rode a motorbike and fled toward the national highway.

Both Castañares and Tayong could not say if the twin grenade attacks were perpetrated by the same suspects. /atm