5 injured in roadside explosion
BULUAN, Maguindanao, Philippines – Five commuters sustained injuries here when a roadside bomb went off while a passenger bus was passing before dawn yesterday.
Maj. Marlowe Patria, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said siblings Zoren and Fatima Madidis, Albert Castro, Juvelyn Pagong, and Abdul Campua, all passengers of the Gran Transit bus, sustained shrapnel wounds.
Patria quoted local Army intelligence operatives as saying that the improvised explosive, made from a live 60-mm mortar round with a blasting mechanism attached to a mobile phone, was planted hours before the bus passed by the scene of the blast.
“Extortionists could be behind the bombing. Our agents are now helping the police investigate the incident,” Patria said.
The roadside bombing here was the third since late last year, according to local officials.
Police tightened security in public places here and surrounding towns for fear of a repeat of the bombing.
More than a dozen buses have been bombed by extortionists in Central Mindanao in the past two years. – John Unson, Rose Tamayo-Tesoro
- Latest
- Trending
