ZAMBOANGA CITY, 14 December 2004 — Leaders of the country’s largest Muslim separatist group yesterday condemned the bombing of a market in the southern region of Mindanao that killed at least 17 people, and ordered its forces to help the government track down the perpetrators.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said those behind the attack, whoever they are, apparently wanted to derail the peace negotiations it was holding with the government.
“The MILF strongly condemns this act of barbarism and those behind this attack must be punished. We have ordered our forces to coordinate with authorities and help the Philippine government track down the perpetrators,” the group’s spokesman, Eid Kabalu, told Arab News.
More than 70 people were reported injured when the bomb exploded at about 4 p.m. Sunday inside packed market in General Santos City. The blast came a day after Britain warned its citizens not to travel to the southern Philippines because of a high threats of terrorism.
The MILF said it has mobilized its intelligence group to determine whether the local Abu Sayyaf group linked to the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah and the Al-Qaeda were involved in the attack.
He said they were also looking into the possibility that the attack had anything to do with a feud between groups of traders who wanted to control the operation at the market.
National police chief Edgar Aglipay said police investigators were also looking into a dispute between two groups wrangling over a stall in the market, as mentioned by the MILF.
“This is something we still have to prove. We are not discounting that other groups may have done this,”he added.
Army Col. Medardo Geslani said several suspects have been identified, but no arrests were made.
“We are validating leads, and maybe later today there will be something clearer,” Geslani said.
