Boy, 16 hurt in Midsayap IED blast
Local News • 15:57 PM Sat Apr 1, 2017
1,751
By:
Edwin O. Fernandez
Police cordoned off the blast site along Quezon Avenue, Midsayap, North Cotabato. (DXMS-AM RAdyo Bida)
MIDSAYAP,
North Cotabato – A 16-year-old pedicab driver was injured when an
improvised explosive device went off at a roadside here before dawn Saturday.
Supt. Bernard
Tayong, Midsayap town police chief, said the explosion occurred at 4:30 a.m.
while the victim, a resident of Barangay Pagangan, Aleosan, North Cotabato, was
sitting on his pedicab looking for passengers along Quezon Avenue.
No one has
claimed responsibility for the bomb attack. The victim was rushed to the
hospital by responding cops.
sand//scontent.fmnl4-6.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/17757837_120300002877678604_1927152343_n.jpg?oh=68db642b68e95ff2fa02b06ca2cf2b34andampoe=58E11549 Tayong, who
withheld the victim’s name, said the motive of the IED could be extortion as it
was planted near a famous restaurant along Quezon Avenue.
But he said
investigators are looking at other possible motives and groups who could have set
off the IED. He said the BIFF is in the radar of investigators.
Police and
military forces are placed on heightened alert following the bombing.
Bomb experts
said the IED was made of black powder, cut nails as shrapnel and mobile phone
as trigger mechanism, similar to ordnance set off by outlawed Bangsamoro
Islamic Freedom Fighters in Maguindanao against government forces.
Speaking for
the BIFF, Abu Misry Mama, denied his group was behind the Midsayap bombing.