‘Mastermind’ in North Cotabato bus attacks nabbed

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines — The alleged mastermind in the recent bus attacks in M’lang, North Cotabato was arrested in this city yesterday.

Ali Akbar did not resist when police officers and intelligence agents of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade served a warrant for his arrest in his hideout in Barangay East Patadon.

The warrant was issued by the North Cotabato Regional Trial Court Branch 23 in connection with Akbar’s suspected involvement in the burning of a bus on June 3 and a bomb attack in January.

Akbar is a member of Dawlah Islamiya, a terrorist group engaged in attacks on transportation utilities and commercial establishments whose owners refuse to pay protection money, according to Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy, chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Uy said Akbar is an expert bomb-maker.

Three persons were killed while six others where injured when suspected terrorists torched a bus of the Yellow Bus Co. last June 3.

A person was killed while seven others were wounded when a bomb reportedly planted by Akbar and his men in a bus of the same company exploded in Tulunan town on Jan. 27 this year.