TACURONG CITY, Philippines — The police on Wednesday took custody of one of 11 passengers hurt in a bus bombing on Sunday for his alleged involvement in the attack.
Witnesses have implicated Esmael Daomilang, 55, in the bombing, police said.
Police Brig. Gen. Jamili Macaraeg of the Police Regional Office-12 said Thursday policemen are now guarding Daomiling in a hospital.
Army and police bomb disposal experts had earlier said the improvised explosive device went off prematurely, before Daomiling and an accomplice, a still unidentified woman, could disembark from the bus.
A passenger named Gilbert Barbosa Panes, 56, was killed in the explosion that also left Daomilang injured.
Macaraeg said investigators and police intelligence agents are now validating the suspect's reported links with both the Al-khobar and the Dawlah Islamiya terror groups.
Both groups, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, have been known to bomb public conveyances and commercial establishments if owners refuse to pay them off monthly.
Intelligence operatives from PRO-BAR and the Army's 6th Infantry Division are cooperating in identifying the woman who was with Daomiling when he boarded the bus at the border of the adjoining Cotabato and Maguindanao del Sur provinces.
The woman has remained at large, according to officials of the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office that has jurisdiction over this city.