Teen hurt in North Cotabato grenade blast

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — A villager was badly injured in a grenade attack in the town proper of Pikit on Sunday, the second in just two weeks.

Superintendent Aldrin Gonzalez, spokesman of the Region 12 police, said the victim, 16-year-old Joshua Akmad, is now confined in a hospital.

He was standing near the spot where a fragmentation grenade hurled by one of two men on a motorcycle landed and went off.

The suspects sped away as the grenade exploded, hurting Akmad and causing panic among Pikit residents.

Gonzalez said Akmad sustained serious shrapnel wounds in different parts of his body.

The bombing was preceded by the November 11 grenade explosion in a residential area in the same town that injured neighbors Kim Taada and Christopher Montecino.

The attack was also pulled off by two men on a motorcycle.

Gonzalez said probers are still trying to determine if the same suspects are behind the two bombings.