Pentagon extort ring tagged in terminal blast

COTABATO CITY — Suspected members of a notorious extortion ring identified with the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang blasted a PRB-423 Belgian-type grenade inside a bus terminal here Thursday night, causing panic among residents but harming no one.

Responding elements of the Army’s 6th Ordnance Explosive Detachment here said the explosive could have been hurled from outside the fenced terminal of the Wenna Bus Co., often the target of bomb attacks by extortionists.

Junaid Adam, manager of the Wenna’s operations center here, said the grenade exploded near an eatery managed by his wife.

Since 2000, more than a dozen Wenna buses have been bombed by extortionists preying on transport companies plying the Cotabato-Davao route.

Seven people were killed while 20 others were wounded last October when a powerful bomb, fashioned from an 81mm mortar projectile, ripped through the public bus terminal in Kidapawan City, capital of North Cotabato. The explosive was planted between two parked Wenna buses.

North Cotabato officials suspect that any of the three extortion rings identified with the Pentagon — the Dragon Group, the Urban Lions and the Suicide Bombers Team — could have pulled off Thursday’s bombing.

The three extortion rings have been implicated in the spate of bombings of commercial establishments in Central Mindanao. – John Unson