From the Philippine News Agency (Jun 23): 1 hurt as blast rocks North Cotabato town
KABACAN, North Cotabato --A bystander was hurt when an improvised explosive device (IED) planted at a roadside canal in front of a business establishment went off Saturday night along Sinamar 2 Street here, Supt. Leo Ajero, Kabacan police chief said Sunday.
The IED fashioned from 60 mm mortar, exploded at 7:35 p.m.
Ajero said the victim remained unidentified but suffered only minor shrapnel wounds.
The victim was walking nearby when the explosion occurred in front of Laira Marketing.
Members of the police bomb disposal team recovered fragmentation of the improvised bomb.
No one has claimed responsibility but authorities suspect it was carried out by extortionist groups preying on business establishment.
The blast, the seventh since January this year, damaged glass panes of Laira Marketing.
Witnesses said the blast scene was near a narrow street leading to the house of incumbent Mayor George Tan.
Police could not say whether the mayor was the target or the business establishments.
Tan lost in the last elections.
Aside from bombings, grenade throwing and setting off of improvised bomb, Kabacan had also experienced a series of shooting, involving local politicians, businessmen, people engaged in drug trade and plain extortion, including transmission towers of the National Grid Corporation of thePhilippines
Shortly before and after elections, a series of four explosions rocked this town where the vice mayor running for reelection was shot dead months earlier.
Ajero said additional police forces from Philippine National Police (PNP) Regional Office 12 have been sent to augment local police enforcers.
Ajero has repeatedly appealed to the locals to help police in maintaining law and order by reporting suspicious looking persons carrying suspicious baggage.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=537205
KABACAN, North Cotabato --A bystander was hurt when an improvised explosive device (IED) planted at a roadside canal in front of a business establishment went off Saturday night along Sinamar 2 Street here, Supt. Leo Ajero, Kabacan police chief said Sunday.
The IED fashioned from 60 mm mortar, exploded at 7:35 p.m.
Ajero said the victim remained unidentified but suffered only minor shrapnel wounds.
The victim was walking nearby when the explosion occurred in front of Laira Marketing.
Members of the police bomb disposal team recovered fragmentation of the improvised bomb.
No one has claimed responsibility but authorities suspect it was carried out by extortionist groups preying on business establishment.
The blast, the seventh since January this year, damaged glass panes of Laira Marketing.
Witnesses said the blast scene was near a narrow street leading to the house of incumbent Mayor George Tan.
Police could not say whether the mayor was the target or the business establishments.
Tan lost in the last elections.
Aside from bombings, grenade throwing and setting off of improvised bomb, Kabacan had also experienced a series of shooting, involving local politicians, businessmen, people engaged in drug trade and plain extortion, including transmission towers of the National Grid Corporation of the
Shortly before and after elections, a series of four explosions rocked this town where the vice mayor running for reelection was shot dead months earlier.
Ajero said additional police forces from Philippine National Police (PNP) Regional Office 12 have been sent to augment local police enforcers.
Ajero has repeatedly appealed to the locals to help police in maintaining law and order by reporting suspicious looking persons carrying suspicious baggage.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=537205