Military supports probe on deadly Maguindanao mortar shelling
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 12:30 PM Tue May 26, 2020
1
By:
John M. Unson
Bangsamoro Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo inspected Monday the bombed out village in Datu Saudi Ampatuan. (Contributed photo)
MAGUINDANAO --- The Western Mindanao Command shall support an impartial investigation on Sunday’s four mortar blasts in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town that killed two children and injured 14 others.
Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of WestMinCom, said Tuesday only a deep and impartial probe can put closure to the incident.
“That is something we shall welcome,” Sobejana told reporters Tuesday.
The WestMinCom has jurisdiction over the 6th Infantry Division that covers Maguindanao province where the municipality of Datu Saudi Ampatuan is located.
The commander of 6th ID, Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon, said they are as ready to help in any inter-agency, multi-sector inquiry on Sunday’s alleged mortar explosions in Barangay Kitango in Datu Saudi Ampatuan.
“There was no military operation in that municipality last Sunday,” Carreon said.
Siblings Aslamiya, 10, and the seven-year-old Asnaida Tambak were killed in the blasts that also left 14 others wounded, among them their mother, Noraisa.
The explosions also damaged houses in Barangay Kitango, located near the town proper of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, a municipality locked in deadly clan wars involving heavily-armed Moro groups.
Datu Saudi Ampatuan is a stronghold of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, also known having 81 and 60 millimeter mortar launchers and anti-tank rockets.
BIFF bomb-makers have been using live 81 and 60 MM mortar projectiles as main components for improvised explosive devices they detonate from a distance using mobile phones.
Rival forces of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front clashed repeatedly in nearby Guindulungan town in Maguindanao the week before, hostilities that sparked tension among members of both groups in Datu Saudi Ampatuan.
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, local government secretary of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Tuesday they appreciate Sobejana and Carreon’s commitment of support to any impartial probe on the reported mortar shelling in Barangay Kitango.
Sinarimbo met and discussed the issue with Sobejana and Carreon during a brief informal meeting in Maguindanao on Monday.
“We agreed not to make hasty conclusions on the incident pending completion of the investigation on what had really happened,” Sinarimbo said.
Sinarimbo, also spokesman of the BARMM government, on Monday inspected the spots where the mortar projectiles landed and went off and visited the injured residents in the hospitals.
He also extended initial assistance from the BARMM government to the blast victims, three of them minors.