By Edwin Fernandez and a report from Noel Punzalan/PNA
CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao – Military authorities believed the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) had a hand in the bombing of a mall in Cotabato City on New Year’s Eve that killed two shoppers and injured dozens of others.
Among those injured in Monday’s bombing, which came at about 2 p.m., were 10 minors, according to Major General Cirilito Sobejana, the commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (ID).
He said initial investigation led to the IS-linked BIFF in Maguindanao that recently shifted to attacking non-combatants from harassing military personnel, starting with the Isulan twin bombings last September.
“We are not discounting the possibility that the Daesh-inspired group was responsible in the bombing,” Sobejana said.
Senior Supt. Rolly Octavio, city police director, said police are reviewing the closed circuit TV (CCTV) camera footage taken at South Seas Mall to help identify the perpetrators.
“Our authorities have the information about the suspects, as to the motive, that is being determined,” Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi said in a news conference some two hours after the blast.
Two were declared dead on arrival in two separate hospitals. They were identified as Jonathan Torribiano of Upi, Maguindanao and Mariam Kali, 31 of Barangay Poblacion 2, Cotabato City.
Octavio said bomb experts recovered about one kilo of cut nails, a plastic container with traces of black powder and broken parts of a mobile phone at the blast site.
In a follow-up operation inside the mall, another improvised explosive device with chemical component was found on the second-floor baggage counter left by a still unidentified man.
“A CCTV captured the man’s facial features”, Octavio said.
