Gov’t forces seize IED inside passenger van in Maguindanao

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao--Police and military authorities seized Thursday afternoon a powerful improvised explosive device after a civilian tipped off the transport of the bomb inside a passenger van.

Acting on a tip, Datu Odin Sinsuat municipal police personnel and soldiers of the Army’s 6th Infantry Battalion put up a chokepoint in Barangay Awang along the national highway leading to Cotabato City at about 4 p.m., according to Senior Police Officer 2 Ping Guiaman of the Datu Odin Police.

“We received a tip that a bomb will be transported to Barangay Rosary Heights 10 in Cotabato City,” Guiaman told reporters here, adding that the explosive would be brought in by a member of Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

At about 4:30 p.m., police flagged down along the Awang checkpoint a white passenger van vehicle (ABT6892) and found at the rear baggage compartment a box of corn grains with the bomb inside. Traffic along the Awang-Cotabato city section of the highway was immediately shut down for the safety of motorists.

Military explosive ordnance disposal experts deactivated the bomb rigged from an 81-mm. mortar projectile with a mobile phone as trigger mechanism.
The passenger van driver and his helper were later invited for questioning, but both could not say who owned the box containing the bomb.

Police and military authorities believed that the BIFF was behind the attempt to slip through the IED in the city to divert sustained military operations in Maguindanao. (PNA)