MILF invokes truce, seeks release of bomb expert

COTABATO CITY — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is invoking its ceasefire agreement with the government to secure the release of an arrested MILF fighter who used to train rebels in making bombs.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the arrest on Oct. 31 of Abu Hashim Solaiman was not only a serious breach of the ceasefire agreement but also a "provocation" that the separatist group would protest.

"It appears now that the real circumstances (of) his arrest are being twisted to make it appear that he was carrying with him a powerful bomb when he was arrested," Kabalu told local radio station dxMS.

He also confirmed that Solaiman is a henchman of Shamier Salamat, a brother of MILF chairman Hashim Salamat.

Solaiman, whom the military tagged as a "demolition expert" who once taught MILF rebels how to make bombs, was intercepted by members of the 38th Infantry Battalion and the Army’s 12th Intelligence Service Unit on the road from Alamada town in North Cotabato to Kidapawan City on Oct. 31.

Army Maj. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the Central Mindanao-based 6th Infantry Division, said Solaiman was carrying an improvised bomb made of B-40 rockets and an 81-mm. mortar projectile with a battery-operated blasting devise.

Ando said the 38th IB and 12th ISU turned over Solaiman to the Central Mindanao police and a charge of illegal possession of explosives has already been filed against him.

An Army lawyer, who asked not to be identified, said Solaiman’s arrest was not a violation of the ceasefire agreement because he was "caught red-handed" with a bomb that, authorities suspect, was to be exploded in Kidapawan City.

"The ceasefire does not clothe MILF rebels with authority to roam in highways and populated areas carrying bombs and firearms," the lawyer said, adding that Solaiman has been charged before the sala of Regional Trial Court Judge Teresita Llaban under Criminal Case No. 2854.

Solaiman is now under detention at the North Cotabato provincial jail in Kidapawan City, the lawyer added.

Military intelligence sources said Solaiman was taught how to make bombs in Afghanistan in the 1980s and served as deputy training director of the MILF’s Abdurahman Bides Memorial Military Academy in Camp Abubakar, the MILF’s main stronghold before it fell to government control two years ago.

The sources said they are investigating Solaiman’s reported links with extortion gangs blamed for the spate of bombings in Central Mindanao.

When Solaiman was arrested, he was on board a motorcycle registered in the name of a popular politician in a "hostile" North Cotabato town, but the source refused to identify the politician while police are interrogating Solaiman.

On Oct. 10, an improvised bomb, made of incendiary chemicals mixed with nails and shredded cast iron, and rigged with a battery-operated, time-delayed blasting device, exploded in the terminal of the Weena Bus Co. in Kidapawan City, killing seven people and seriously wounding 24 others.

Police arrested on Oct. 16 Datu Ali Sultan who was identified in a police lineup by two female witnesses as having been involved in the bus terminal bombing. Charges of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder have been filed against the suspects.

Police also arrested Sultan’s alleged cohorts Abdulgani Samama and Uldarico Monserati Jr., alias Jun Palma.

Sultan later pointed to Datu Musin Mamintal, a former mayoral candidate in Pikit, North Cotabato, as the mastermind of the Weena Bus Co. bombing, which, the military said, was part of an extortion scheme.

The explosion occurred around 3 p.m. of Oct. 10 as passengers and bystanders, including children, crowded the bus terminal in Barangay Perez in Kidapawan.

The explosion, according to the probers, destroyed two buses parked nearby and caused damage to the concrete waiting shed where it exploded.

Mamintal later surrendered to Army Col. Cardazo Luna, commander of the 602nd Army Brigade based in Carmen, also in North Cotabato.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said Mamintal’s group was also behind the Aug. 28 bombing of another Weena bus meant to persuade the bus company to pay "revolutionary taxes" amounting to P1.5 million and monthly payments of P500,000.

Police believe the bus company’s refusal to give in to demands was the motive for the Oct. 10 bombing of the bus company’s terminal in Kidapawan City.