2 grenade attacks hurt Sultan Kudarat town councilor

LAMBAYONG, SULTAN KUDARAT – A town councilor and his cousin were injured when unidentified men on a motorbike threw a fragmentation grenade at the house of the town mayor Saturday morning, police said.

Only minutes after the 6:45 a.m. grenade attack on the house of Lambayong Mayor Ramon Abalos in Purok Pag-asa, Barangay Poblacion, the same suspects on motorbike hurled another grenade at the compound of the Lambayong police office.

Chief Supt. Marcelo Morales, police director for Region 12, citing a report from the Lambayong police, identified the injured councilor as Carlos Abalos, 43, the mayor’s brother and Richard Abalos, 39, the mayor’s cousin.

The Abalos’ were taking coffee at the mayor’s residential compound about 6:45 a.m. when a motorbike with two men wearing ski masks passed by. One of them lobbed the hand grenade that landed beside the mayor’s vehicle.

The suspects fled toward the police station and tossed the second grenade.  Nobody was hurt in the police station grenade attack.

Abalos told reporters the attack could be a form of harassment because of his relentless campaign against illegal drugs and drugs syndicates in Lambayong.

Investigation continued as the victims recuperate at a hospital in Tacurong City.