Maguindanao mayor, father, 6 others survive grenade attack

TALAYAN, Maguidnanao -- Unidentified men lobbed a
hand grenade at the compound of a grand Mosque here Friday
noon that left eight persons injured, including an incumbent town mayor and a former
town mayor, the military here said.

Capt. Arvin John Encinas, speaking for the Army’s 6th
Infantry Division, said the grenade throwing incident transpired at the
perimeter of Talayan Grand Mosque across the town hall in Barangay Poblacion at
about 12:45 p.m.

Encinas said the blast occurred as the victims were
leaving the Mosque after the Friday noon time prayer.

The suspects, investigation disclosed, were on board
a while Toyota Innova without license plate that speed away from the blast.

The injured Kagui Ali Midtimbang, 62, and his 33-year-old son, Nathaniel, mayor of Datu Anggal town, were emerging from a roadside mosque in the town proper of Talayan after an obligatory Friday prayer rite when unidentified men riding motorcycles hurled grenades over the fence of the worship site. Police identified the other victims assecurity escorts Thos Kasim, Tho Marcos, Tho Macalangga,
Datu Anong Mupak, Sandi Aron and Manap Balumol.

They sustained multiple shrapnel injuries and were
rushed to a private hospital in Cotabato City.

The Maguindanao police said another grenade was
lobbed at about 12:45 a.m. by men on a motorbike after the first blast but it
did not explode.

Motive of the attack
remained unknown as of posting.
Investigation continues.Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, director of the Maguindanao provincial police, said the bombers had escaped using their motorcycles.One of the two motorcycles used in the attack was found later along a highway in Barangay Mapayag in Datu Anggal.Talayan and Datu Anggal towns are both in the second district of Maguindanao.The older Midtimbang aspired for the gubernatorial post of Maguindanao during the 2016 elections, but lost to reelectionist Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.Midtimbang, who had served as mayor of Talayan, sustained multiple shrapnel wounds in both legs.Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, who has political jurisdiction over Maguindanao, immediately offered to work out the airlift of the injured Midtimbang clan elder to a hospital in Davao City.Hataman, chairman of ARMM’s inter-agency peace and order council, has ordered the police director of the autonomous region, Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, to personally oversee the investigation on the grenade attack.The town center of Talayan was bombed more than two weeks ago by suspected members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.Several improvised explosive devices were also found along strategic stretches of the Cotabato-Isulan Highway in Talayan that were promptly deactivated by Army bomb disposal experts.