3 hurt as grenade explodes in ARMM operations center

COTABATO CITY — A grenade hurled by motorcycle-riding men exploded at the gate of the 32-hectare operations center here of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao past 1 p.m. yesterday, seriously wounding a policeman and two members of the ARMM security group.

Two other explosions were reported in Kidapawan, North Cotabato, which left two persons, including a police ordnance expert, wounded.

Senior Inspector Samson Obatay, chief of the Cotabato City’s police mobile force, said they still have no solid clues on who were behind the grenade-throwing incident.

Witnesses said two men on board a motorcycle casually approached the entrance gate of the ARMM compound, pulled over and tossed the grenade at a group of unsuspecting security guards and policemen seated under a big narra tree.

The three victims were rushed to the nearby Cotabato Regional Medical Center.

Lawyer Oscar Sampulna, the ARMM’s executive secretary, said they are helping the city police and the regional security group investigate the incident.

"The victims will be assisted financially by the office of the regional governor," Sampulna told The STAR.

Sampulna declined to comment on speculations that the incident could be linked to the deep-seated animosity between the Ampatuan clan and Islamic militants.

The patriarch of the Ampatuan clan, Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, survived a bomb attack in their hometown of Shariff Aguak last June 23. The incident left seven people dead, two of them close relatives of the governor.

The Shariff Aguak bombing sparked hostilities between militias loyal to the Ampatuan and rebel factions led by the alleged masterminds of the June 23 attempt on the governor’s life.

"We have to give police investigators enough time to wrap up their findings on the real circumstances behind the (explosion in) the ARMM compound," Sampulna said.

The incident came less than an hour after an explosion ripped through a store in Kidapawan City, not far away from the police precinct there.

Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, civil-relations chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said although the incident caused no injuries or damage, it sowed panic among residents.

Another bomb, made of a mortar shell, was discovered shortly afterward by passers-by near a busy road in Kidapawan, prompting the deployment of a police ordnance team.

As the policemen were preparing to approach and defuse the bomb, it went off, injuring one law enforcer and a civilian.

No one claimed responsibility for the two incidents. But city police authorities suspect that terror groups may have been involved because the attackers placed the explosives in usually crowded areas and the bombs appeared different from those used by extortion gangs. — With AP