Cops eye ASG in Jolo twin bombings

COTABATO CITY -- The May 30 bombings inside the Sulu provincial police camp in Jolo town were perpetrated by four members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), officials said Monday.The bombers, Muammar Askali, Nidil Bali, Edemar Isnain, and Alkam Hadjail, all escaped after the attack and have since remained at large.Police officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have confirmed the identities of the suspects and their group affiliation.The bombings were apparent retaliation for the killing last month of the suspects’ cohort by policemen and the arrest of another five days later in Sulu’s nearby Patikul town for illegal possession of firearm.Ranking provincial personnel of different line agencies in Sulu under the ARMM, said the bombings, which injured five civilians and 11 policemen, were pulled off together by Askali, Bali, Isnain and Hadjail, all companions of Mindas Manda, most known as Muktader.Muktader, wanted for more than a dozen heinous offenses, including kidnapping of foreigners, was killed in an encounter with policemen in Barangay Walled City in Jolo last May 20.Local officials, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the four bombers were seen suspiciously roaming inside the Sulu provincial police camp 30 minutes before a fragmentation grenade and a powerful improvised explosive device went off inside the facility.Witnesses said it was Askali and Isnain who left a bag containing the IED beside a small store just several meters away from the Gate 2 of the camp.The IED exploded several minutes after Bali and Hadjail had set off a fragmentation grenade in an adjacent spot, near a mosque inside the camp, just as responding policemen arrived at the scene for a post-blast investigation.One of the policemen hurt in the IED explosion, Senior Inspector Jeremy Dogao, arrested on May 25 a senior ASG member, Alvin Jumaidih, in Barangay Latih in nearby Patikul town and seized from him a .45 caliber pistol.Local officials said the plan to bomb the police camp was hatched on May 27 during a clandestine meeting by ASG leaders near Jolo.Witnesses have also confirmed having seen Askali and Isnain riding a Suzuki Raider 150 motorcycle together, roaming in the police camp on March 29, observing its surroundings.