1 killed, 1 hurt in separate attacks in Central Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - A Muslim cleric was killed while a four-year-old girl was hurt in a grenade explosion in separate incidents Wednesday in Central Mindanao.

Imam Abdulkadir Sumael, 40, of Palimbang town in Sultan Kudarat, was walking along a busy thoroughfare in Purok Islam in Cotabato City when a man casually approached, drew a pistol from the waist and opened fire.

Sumael died on the spot from gunshot wounds he sustained in the attack.

Responding policemen recovered from the scene spent shells of .45 caliber pistol.

The suspect hurriedly left after sensing that the shots he fired triggered a commotion.

The incident was preceded by a grenade blast in Kabacan town in North Cotabato which injured a pre-school girl.

The fragmentation grenade went off near a roadside Army detachment while a passenger vehicle carrying the child and her parents was passing by.

Superintendent Bernardo Tayong, spokesman of the North Cotabato provincial police, said members of the Kabacan municipal police are still investigating on the bombing incident.