Blast hits Sultan Kudarat highway patrol group office

TACURONG CITY -- Unidentified men hurled a fragmentation grenade at the office of PNP Highway Patrol Group in Sultan Kudarat in what police believed was a retaliatory attack against HPG's intensified drive on illegal vehicles.Superintendent Jhunny Buenacosa, Tacurong City PNP director, said in a phone interview that the attack occurred at 7:30 p.m. Sunday.Manhunt has been launched against the attackers whose identities have been provided to the police by witnesses.Nobody was hurt in the blast but it caused damages to the building located along the national highway in Barangay EJC Montilla, Tacurong City.Quoting witnesses, two men riding tandem on a motorbike slowed down in front of HPG building then one of the two men hurled the grenade and sped away.Responding police and Army bomb experts recovered fragments from MK-2 fragmentation grenade.Buenacosa said the intensified campaign of Highway Patrol Group against colorum vehicles operating in the city could have motivated the attackers who owned one of the vehicles impounded by the highway patrol unit.Implementing highway traffic rules, members of the PNP HPG have been checking at random vehicles plying the Isulan-Tacurong City highway and elsewhere in Sultan Kudarat province.Attention is given on motorbikes which are often used by lawless elements in committing crimes because it can be maneuvered for quick escape after the crime was carried out.No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but police investigators have been following a lead that could identify the perpetrators and their immediate arrest.