Cops nab suspect in grenade blast in North Cotabato town

NORTH COTABATO – Policemen arrested on Friday night a man escaping after allegedly throwing a fragmentation grenade near a commercial establishment in Kabacan town.

No one was killed or injured in the attack, but the explosion triggered panic among the locals.

Superintendent Jordine Maribojo, chief of the Kabacan municipal police, identified the suspect as 23-year-old Abdulhamad Gulam Hamid.

Maribojo said the suspect did not resist arrest when he sensed that responding policemen had blocked his supposed escape route.

Hamid, who introduced himself as a resident of Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat, threw a fragmentation grenade along USM Avenue at the town proper of Kabacan and was about to escape on a motorcycle when responding policemen caught up on him and immediately cuffed him.

Policemen and barangay tanods recovered from Hamid’s trouser pocket a live fragmentation grenade.

Maribojo said investigators have yet to determine Hamid’s motive for the bombing and his group affiliation.

It was not clear if the suspect was supposed to transfer to hit another place using the remaining grenades recovered from him.

Kabacan is often rocked by bombings blamed on extortion gangs preying on local businessmen.