Boy hurt in North Cotabato grenade attack

KIDAPAWAN CITY – A villager was critically injured when two men on a motorbike tossed a hand grenade in front of a variety store in Pikit, North Cotabato at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

The grenade attack along Lozada Street, Barangay Poblacion injured 16-year-old Joshua Akmad. It happened just as military and police authorities detonated an improvised explosive device in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat and two weeks after a grenade attack, also in Barangay Poblacion, that hurt two persons.

Chief Inspector Theng Bacal, Pikit town police chief, said Akmad was sitting in front of a roadside variety store when two men riding on a motorbike passed by and tossed the grenade.

Akmad suffered shrapnel injuries in the head and body. The suspect sped away on the same motorbike.

Bacal could not say yet if the two grenade attacks in Pikit were related.

In Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat, police and military bomb experts defused at 7 p.m. Sunday a powerful improvised bomb left by still unidentified men in front of Dyna Torres Store in Barangay New Cebu.

Residents noticed a sack left unattended in front of the store. Suspecting it could be a bomb, they alerted the police.

On Saturday night, Army bomb experts deactivated a roadside bomb left by still unidentified men in Barangay Tanuel, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.
Military and police authorities suspect the IS-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) could be behind the bombing try.

But Abu Misry Mama, speaking for the BIFF, blamed the Army instead. “We have nothing to do with it, possibly it was the handiwork of the Army because Mindanao is under martial law.”