Police hunting down 4 suspects in Zambo bombings
-A A +ABy Bong Garcia
Friday, August 17, 2012
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- The local police are looking for four persons, including a woman, who could help them shed light on two separate bombing attacks that injured seven people Thursday night in this city.
The authorities are also eyeing extortion, terrorism, and destabilization as the three possible motives behind the two bombings.
The first explosion took place around 9:20 p.m. Thursday aboard an inter-provincial passenger bus of the Rural Transit Management Inc. (RTMI), while the second occurred shortly before 11 p.m. near a mosque.
The bus explosion was reported on Friday by Police Regional Office-Zamboanga (PRO) Director Napoleon Estilles, who said four persons, who are now subject of an investigation, boarded the bus in Barangay Culianan, east of this city.
He said they have witnesses who provided them the suspects' description that could help them identify the four passengers.
The four, according to witnesses, were no longer aboard when an improvised bomb exploded at the rear portion of the passenger bus, Estilles said.
The bus with body number 9224 had just arrived from Pagadian City, the capital of Zamboanga del Sur province, and is about 200 meters away from the terminal in Barangay Guiwan, when the bomb exploded.
The blast injured seven people, including a two-year-old boy.
On the other hand, no one was either killed or injured in the explosion outside the Al-Imam-Al Mahdi mosque at Suterville, Campo Islam village (not San Jose Gusu as earlier reported), west of the city.
The bomb was placed at an electric post situated near the mosque.
Estilles said the motive of the attacks could be extortion, citing the RTMI recently received a letter asking for the payment of protection money but did not give in to the demand.
The bombings could also be the handiworks of the terrorist group al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf to terrorize the riding public, he said.
The bombings could also be to create a bad scenario, citing the second incident happened outside a mosque, which has a religious implication, he added.
Estilles said, however, that they have yet to ascertain whether the two incidents were related. (Sunnex)
Local news
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