TAGUM CITY – The military has blamed the bomb explosion on Tuesday in Cotabato City to the terror group, Jema’ah Islamiyah, saying that fragments of the bomb were similar to the signature bomb maker of the group currently believed coddled by a breakaway Moro revolutionary group.
Major Dante Gania, public affairs officer of the Army’s 6th Infantry “Kampilan” Division, said the improvised explosive device was the handiwork of one Basit Usman, which the military identified as a JI bomb maker and believed to be holed up in Maguindanao province with the Bangsoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The US government placed Basit Usman on the list of most wanted terrorists with a bounty of $1 million for his capture.
Rolen Balquin, Cotabato City police director, told DavaoToday that they have received military intelligence report a month earlier of possible bomb attacks in the city and elsewhere in Mindanao as planned by terrorist groups.
Gania said, however, that Tuesday’s bomb attack was “JI’s retaliation against the military” after it raided the JI’s alleged bomb factory in Mamapasano, Maguindanao province last June.
Balquin, meanwhile, assured the Cotabatenyos that “people’s security and safety is our priority as we are working hard to ward off any terrorism activities in this city.” (davaotoday.com)
