Grenade blast hits Pikit town in N. Cotabato
NORTH COTABATO ---- A grenade blast ripped through the residential yard of a merchant-couple in Pikit town in North Cotabato Sunday night, causing panic among local residents.
Chief Inspector Aldrin Gonzales, spokesman of the Police Regional Office-12, said the spouses Hayder and Samra Manibpal are both still clueless on who could have perpetrated the bombing.
No one was hurt in the attack but the incident caused panic among villagers in Barangay Inug-ug in Pikit where the house of the Manibpals is located.
Investigators said a man on motorcycle lobbed the grenade into the couple’s yard and escaped immediately just as the explosive went off.
The attack was preceded by the bombing last week by members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters of a detachment of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Timbangan in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.
Police probers said a BIFF bandit hurled a grenade towards the detachment over its fence, setting off an explosion.
Captain Arvin Encinas, public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said a soldier was slightly wounded in the blast.BIFF bandits also fired a 40 millimeter grenade projectile at the campus of a private school in nearby Datu Piang town, also in Maguindanao, several hours later.