SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao – A 59-year-old man was killed while his wife and two others were injured in an explosion in Barangay Bialong here Wednesday night, police said Friday.
Inspector Abdin Arasa, town police chief, said the blast occurred at a house past 10:30 p.m. in Barangay Bialong, a remote village situated some 20 kilometers away from the town center.
The police official identified the fatality as Abdulaziz Asim, a resident of Sitio Diyati, Barangay Tina, who was declared dead on arrival at the Maguindanao provincial hospital here.
Injured were Asim’s wife, Farida, 49; Saiden Maulana, 21; and Sema Bedo, 55, both residents of Barangay Bialong who are now undergoing treatment in the same hospital.
Arasa said it was not clear what triggered the explosion and what kind of explosive was used as investigation is still going on.
“Police probers are also trying to determine if the blast was accidental or related to the ongoing military pursuit operations against local terrorists in the Bialong area,” he said.
Arasa noted that the military launched two weeks ago an operation in the area against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a local terrorist group that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria organization.
“The village officials have been told to order their constituents to vacate their villages due to the on-going law enforcement operation,” he said.
Arasa, however, said some of the evacuees return home to attend to their farms during the daytime.
Currently, many families have deserted the village of Bialong because of its proximity to the site of sporadic clashes between government forces and BIFF radicals. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
