2 Indians nabbed for Antipolo bombing

Police now have in their custody two Indian nationals who are suspected to be responsible for the bombing of a grocery in Antipolo City early Monday morning.

Authorities said they are still looking for a Pakistani and a Filipino "with a Mindanaoan accent" for questioning in the bombing that would have likely injured several people had the homemade bombs not been discovered.

Superintendent Normandy Carpio, Rizal criminal investigation and detection group chief, said they are now holding for questioning Penkej Komar, 27 and Panjkej Jain, 20, both of 3115 Gladness St., Annex 18, Better Living, Parañaque City.

Police, however, have not determined the identity of the Pakistani and the Filipino, Carpio said.

Carpio said the four supposedly checked into the Gem’s Hotel along the Circumferential Road in Antipolo City a day before the blast that rocked the city’s commercial district at around 8:30 a.m. of Monday.

The hotel employees told investigators that it was the first time foreigners checked into the hotel and the Pakistani showed documents to hotel clerks for billing purposes.

Carpio said the Filipino was overheard speaking to the foreigners in English but "with a Mindanaoan accent."

Police learned the Indians arrived at around 1:30 p.m. of Sept. 16 and stayed at Room 104. Minutes later, the Pakistanis arrived with the Filipino and were billeted in Room 105.

At around 6:30 a.m. the following day, a carpenter working on Rempson Supermarket found six plastic containers that appeared to be bombs and reported the discovery to the police.

While the Antipolo police waited for the bomb experts from Camp Crame, responding firefighters hosed the containers with water to destroy the exposed batteries and wiring attached to timers on three of the six containers.

However, one of the bombs exploded a few minutes later, leaving a crater at least one meter wide, injuring two firemen and blowing off sliding doors of the grocery and three adjoining stalls and damaging seven houses. Property damage was estimated at P1 million.

The explosion caused a mild panic in Antipolo with government employees evacuating the city hall and Antipolo Mayor Angelito Gatbalayan suspending classes in private and public schools in the city.

The bomb squad from Camp Crame defused the remaining bombs which contained some 18 to 20 liters of ammonium nitrate mixed with gasoline — the equivalent of one or two pounds of high explosives.

Police said the homemade bombs were timed by wristwatches set at 8:35, 10:25 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and included three sets of blasting caps and six 1.5-volt pen-sized batteries.

Authorities said witnesses gave descriptions of the perpetrators but they are not discounting the possibility that the foiled bombing may have had something to do with an internal problem at Rempson Supermarket.

A few hours later, Antipolo police again received a bomb threat at the Antipolo public market at around 9:30 a.m. but bomb experts found the call to be a hoax.