ZAMBOANGA CITY, 4 October 2003 — At least four people were killed and 20 others injured when still unknown criminals hurled two hand grenades inside a mosque packed with worshipers in the southern Philippine province of North Cotabato.
Police and local officials said the worshipers, all male, were in the middle of noontime prayers at a mosque inside the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) compound when the attack happened.
The NIA office is located in Villarica village in Midsayap town, about 300 kilometers east of Zamboanga City or 890 kilometers southeast of Manila.
Killed were Macmud Mending, NIA regional director for Central Mindanao, an irrigation officer from nearby Maguindanao province, Imam Ismail Datucali who was leading the prayers, and another unidentified worshiper.
Other NIA officials were among those seriously wounded, said Chief Inspector Eduardo Marquez of the Midsayap Police.
“We were reciting prayers with our eyes closed when we heard something, hard objects landing in our midst, followed by very loud, thundering blasts,” witness Abdunaser Guiad told a radio station.
Another witness, NIA employee Luciano Cadungog, said he saw two men fleeing on a motorcycle after the grenades exploded.
Cadungog said he was in another building in the compound when he heard a loud explosion. He rushed to the mosque to find some of the victims lying in pools of blood while other people were running out of the mosque in terror.
Chief Inspector Marquez said two grenade pins found at the door of the mosque indicated that the bombers had hurled the explosives from there.
Police have established that at least one suspect was seen talking to several worshippers inside the mosque immediately before the explosion, Marquez said.
“The suspect, based on witnesses accounts, even participated in the prayer session. Were still tracking the suspect down so we can give justice to the victims,” he added.
Police investigators said Mending, who was delivering remarks when the explosion occurred, may have been the target of the attack. The NIA regional office, which is undertaking an irrigation project worth billions of pesos in the area, has reportedly been embroiled in a leadership struggle.
North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Pi?ol said the bombing was not related to previous terrorist incidents in the province. Midsayap is a predominantly Christian town, but also has a large Muslim community.
In an interview on GMA Network’s radio DZBB, he also ruled out a religious angle.
Pi?ol said authorities suspect the blasts were connected to the recent mass termination of NIA employees in the region.
“The angle we are looking at is, this is a struggle for power within the NIA. There is an internal struggle as to who would head the office,” Pi?ol said.
‘Sabotage’
A Muslim group advocating peace yesterday denounced the attack in North Cotabato, and accused the military of perpetrating the bombing and then pinning the blame on the MILF. “We condemn the attack because it was timed with the prayer time of Muslims on a yesterday,” Nash Pangadapun, secretary-general of Maradeka, said in a phone interview.
Pangadapun said the military “wanted to catch the attention of Bush” who is due for a visit here on Oct. 18.
The spokesman for the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said the group was not responsible and claimed the perpetrator was a non-Muslim.
“They are our fellow Muslims and we belong to the same tribe. We cannot do such actions,” Eid Kabalu said. “It’s another sad day for the Muslim community. Of all places, why a mosque?”
The attacks come amid efforts by President Gloria Arroyo to restart stalled peace talks with Muslim secessionists on Mindanao, the homeland of a large Muslim minority that has suffered from a generation of sectarian bloodshed.
US President George W. Bush has offered at least $30 million in development aid to Mindanao once a peace pact is signed, but the 12,500-member Moro Islamic Liberation Front has been slow to regroup after the death in July due to natural causes of its leader Salamat Hashim.
Kabalu said the attack was “part of a pattern” aimed at sabotaging the impending peace talks between the government and the MILF, but stopped short of saying who he thought were the perpetrators. “We see a pattern of sabotaging our efforts to resume talks. But it’s too early to say who are behind this,” he said in a phone interview.
Kabalu maintained that the MILF had no hand in the attack.
“What is the sense for doing that? What are we to gain from that?” he said.
The government and the MILF are to resume formal talks in Kuala Lumpur this month to end the decades-long Moro insurgency. (Additional inputs from agencies)
