COTABATO CITY — Police and military forces have launched a manhunt against two men captured on close circuit television camera tossing a pillbox bomb from a road flyover here on Sunday night.
The pillbox exploded at around 7 p.m. at a residential area under the Dapdap flyover in Barangay Rosary Heights 2, which injured 35-year-old Letlet Paraan, a sidewalk vendor, in her stomach.
Senior Supt. Rolly Octavio, city police director, said the incident was motivated by the arrest of two suspected holdup men by village watchmen who reside under the flyover.
“The arrest last week of two suspected robbers allegedly angered their relatives and vent their ire on the watchmen,” Octavio said in an interview.
Lt. Colonel Gerry Besana, chief of the 6th Infantry Division Civil Military Operations, said two men riding on a motorbike stopped atop the road network, tossed the explosive and sped off.
Besana said the pillbox landed at the roof of Jessie Himaya’s residence located under the flyover. Few seconds later, a loud explosion followed and hurt the female vendor.
Responding police and military personnel brought the victim to the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center for treatment where she was pronounced out of danger.
Police and Army bomb disposal experts recovered black powder, cut tie wires and improvised bomb components at the blast site.
Octavio said police are pursuing a lead, which would hopefully result to the arrest of the perpetrators. He added the incident was isolated. (Noel Punzalan and Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
