Accidental blast hurts 2 fishermen in Cotabato

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two fishermen were injured Thursday in an accidental explosion of a home-made dynamite they were to use for fishing.

The relatives Datu and Mahdi, both surnamed Matabalao, are now confined in a hospital in the city.

They were sailing to a fishing spot two kilometers off the seaside Barangay Kalanganan northwest of the city when one of several dynamites hidden in their boat went off, hurting them both seriously.

Brig. Gen. Graciano Mijares, director of the Regional Police Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Friday the duo shall be subjected to an investigation and may even be prosecuted for keeping explosives.

Dynamites for blast fishing are made of either ammonium nitrate or potassium chlorate mixed with gasoline and sulfur, the same ingredients for improvised explosive devices used by communist rebels and religious militants operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.