Man nabbed for planting IED on NCotabato highway

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Policemen on Saturday arrested a Moro bandit who left a box containing a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) along a busy stretch of a highway in Midsayap town.

Bystanders managed to immediately frisk the suspect, Abdulgani Malang Abas, when they noticed him suspiciously walking away from the spot where he left the IED, near the entrance of a plush roadside hotel.

Superintendent Renante Delos Santos, municipal police chief, said responding policemen immediately brought Abas to the Midsayap police station for interrogation.

Abas told investigators he was merely hired by a woman to bring the box to the town proper of Midsayap and leave it near the entrance to the Hill Park Hotel.

The IED, fashioned from a live 60 MM mortar attached to a battery-operated blasting mechanism, was neatly placed inside the box and covered with ripe Durian fruits.

Vigilant bystanders managed to grab Abas and call the police when they noticed him leaving after he abandoned the box along the highway.

Delos Santos said they are still trying to determine if Abas is a member of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

He said Army bomb experts had safely defused the IED.

Delos Santos said Abas had initially confessed to probers that the IED came from an armed group in Barangay Tugal in Midsayap, not far from the farming enclaves that the BIFF bandits attacked last week.

More than 4,000 villagers were displaced in the attack, where BIFF bandits held hostage more than 20 people, and beheaded a farmer, and executed another as they fled when soldiers counterattacked.