Task Force Southseas intensify hunt for Cotabato IED attack culprits

COTABATO CITY - Authorities are bracing for possible diversionary attacks by violent extremists now that the hunt for two of several suspects in the December 31 bombing here is on.Two were killed while 37 others were wounded in the blast near the entrance to the Southseas Mall here that preceded the deactivation by bomb experts of another improvised explosive device found near a lottery outlet in the second floor of the establishment about an hour later.Superintendent Rolly Octavio of the Cotabato City police revealed on Saturday that they now have photos of the two bombers who left the bag containing an IED inside the mall.Octavio said the photos of the two suspects were taken from recordings of security cameras positioned in the second floor of the Southseas Mall. This for now is already a good lead to start with, Octavio said.Octavio said Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, chairperson of the local inter-agency peace and order council, offered a P500,000 cash incentive in exchange for any information leading to the arrest of the two men, now subject of a joint police-Army manhunt.Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, covering Cotabato City and the nearby Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces, on Saturday urged the local communities to help guard against possible diversionary ploys to mislead investigators now trying to locate the two bombing suspects.Sobejana is helping oversee, along with Chief Superintendent Eliseo Rasco of the Police Regional Office-12, the newly-formed Task Group Southseas, an interim inter-agency bloc investigating on the December 31 IED explosion near the main gate of the Southseas Mall.Officials of 6thID, which has three brigades and more than a dozen battalions scattered in central Mindanao, earlier said there is a possible vendetta angle in the bombing.The attack came after the deaths of four members of a local Islamic State-inspired group in an encounter with covert military operatives last December 22 in Barangay Tatak in a marshland in the center of Mamasapano, Rajah Buayan and General Salipada Pendatun towns in Maguindanao.Cotabato City, under Administrative Region 12, is inside Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Two of the fatalities in the December 22 incident in Barangay Tatak were foreigners, the Singaporean Abu Hud Zain and the other, Abdulrahid Ruhmisanti, an Indonesian.Local officials and traditional Moro elders in the three towns identified the two other fatalities as Salamuddin, son of the cleric Salahuddin Hassan, and Mohammad Ali Hassan.Mohammad is a younger brother of Hassan, henchman of the radical cleric Abdulmalik Esmael, more known as Abu Toraife, figurehead of the third faction in the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which uses the black Islamic State flag as banner.The four terrorists were killed in a clandestine operation led by a captain in the Philippine Marine Corps assigned to a composite military intelligence unit comprised of agents from different branches in the Armed Forces.Local officials have earlier suggested to President Rodrigo Duterte the grant of either medals of valor, or the distinguished conduct star citations to the agents involved in the raid, which resulted in the death of a companion, the Army Sgt. Melanio Diaz.Traditional Moro datus and members of the municipal peace and order councils in Maguindanao on Saturday said Hassan, who is eloquent in stoking hatred for non-Muslims through khutab, or Friday worship sermon, still has four foreign terrorists in tow.Two of them are Asians identified only as Ridhum and Hirman, possibly aliases, and two others, Yunos Amagandhi and a certain Sharbatli, both with Middle Eastern features.Abu Toraife’s group was blamed for the deadly August 28 and September 2 bombings in Isulan town in Sultan Kudarat that left a total of five people dead and injured more than 30 others.ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman on Saturday reaffirmed the support of the police command of the autonomous region, under Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares, to efforts of the mayor of Cotabato City and Task Force Southseas to put closure to the December 31 bombing here.Mijares on Friday ordered all municipal police offices in Maguindanao and in nearby Lanao del province to monitor possible movements of groups sympathetic to the four terrorists killed by military agents last December 22 in Barangay Tatak.Hataman reiterated anew his appeal to Facebook users to stop from posting on their timelines what he described as wild speculations on the incident as if fomenting confusion and fear among people in Cotabato City and nearby municipalities. The Cotabato City peace and order council, the police and the 6thID are doing their best to solve that case, a clear act of terror. They are on top of the situation, Hataman said.He said his office is ready to contribute an earnest amount to the P500,000 cash incentive the Cotabato City local government promised to release to any volunteer who can help identify the real culprits. We in the ARMM care for Cotabato City and all its Christian, Lumad and Muslim residents because it is the seat of the ARMM government. Our regional capitol is located in the city, Hataman said.