Army helps police investigate on Isulan bombing

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao --- The Army's 6th Infantry Division on Sunday dispatched intelligence operatives to help the police investigate on the grenade attack late Saturday in Sultan Kudarat's capital town Isulan town, which injured ten, three of them minors.It was the fifth bombing incident in Central Mindanao in just two weeks.It was earlierreported that at least15 people were hurt in the blast. Only 10 have so far been identified as of press time Sunday. We have directed our intelligence units in Sultan Kudarat province to help the police collect information leading to the arrest of the suspects, said Major Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division.Senior Supt. Danny Reyes, Sultan Kudarat provincial police director, said investigators are still trying to establish the identities of the culprits and their real motive for the attack.The victims were milling together near a petroleum retail station in Barangay Kenram northwest of Isulan when someone hurled a grenade towards the establishment from a distance and hurriedly left.Injured and taken to Sultan Kudarat provincial hospital wereAbix Sandigan, 33, Almashir Ibrahim, 22, Sahid Salendab, 27, Marissa Villanueva, 30, Anne Janet Latip, 21, Lily Beth Ferolino, 45, Linda Baltazar, 49, Regina Dela Rosa, 14, and her six-year-old sibling Darius, Darius Dela Rosa, and another 11-year-old child named Jasper Lindah.The victims sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies. Saturday night’s bombing in Isulan was preceded by four immediate grenade attacks in Central Mindanao, thrice in Kabacan, North Cotabato, and another in Cotabato City, wounding eight people all, two of them members of the Army’s 5thSpecial Forces Battalion.