Maguindanao PPOC condemn Talayan mosque bombing

MAGUINDANAO --- The Maguindanao provincial peace and order council has condemned Friday’s bombing near a mosque in Talayan town that left eight worshipers wounded.Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, chairman of the inter-agency council, said he has asked the provincial police director, Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, to do his best in identifying the people responsible for the atrocity.Among the eight victims were Kagui Ali Midtimbang, 62, leader of Maguindanao’s influential Midtimbang clan, and his 33-year-old son, Nathaniel, mayor of Datu Anggal town, also in the same province. The police must do everything to identify the culprits and file corresponding criminal cases against them, Mangudadatu told reporters Friday afternoon.Mangudadatu thrice survived roadside bombings in different towns in Maguindanao in the past eight years.He said he was angered by the boldness of the bombers in setting off a fragmentation grenade inside the compound of the largest mosque in the town center of Talayan.Midtimbang, who sustained shrapnel wounds in both legs, was airlifted at past 3and00 p.m. Friday to a hospital in Davao City through the efforts of Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).The ARMM governor requested for an Air Force helicopter to transport Midtimbang to Davao City via the Maguindanao Airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat town.