Pikit PNP, Army defuse IED

PIKIT, North Cotabato - Police authorities here recovered and defused Wednesday night a powerful improvised explosive device left unattended near a highway in Barangay Dalingawen, police said.Senior Inspector Sindatu Karim, Pikit town police chief, said IED fashioned from 60 mm mortar with mobile phone as trigger mechanism was safety deactivated by police and military bomb experts.Karim said the village chair of Barangay Dalengawen alerted the police at past 5 p.m.about what they believed was an IED about five meters from the national highway.Karim could not say who brought the IED in the area and to where it was intended to be set off by still unidentified men.He believed the IED was left by its courier due to the presence of police and military personnel conducting highway inspection.