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IED blast hurts farmer in Maguindanao

By Edwin Fernandez

September 23, 2020, 9:22 pm

<p>Google map of Gen. S. K. Pendatun, Maguindanao.</p>

Google map of Gen. S. K. Pendatun, Maguindanao.

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao--A farmer working in the field was wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) blew up in General Salipada K. Pendatun (GSKP) town in Maguindanao early Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy, Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander, said the 5 a.m. blast in Sitio Gantong, Barangay Tonggol in GKSP critically wounded Mujahid Guialudin, a local resident.

A neighbor of the farmer found another IED at the blast site that was later disarmed by the military bomb disposal team, Uy said.

“The victim was working with his carabao in the field when the IED went off,” Uy said.

Responding troopers from the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion rushed the victim to a hospital at adjacent Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province.

Army bomb experts conducted a probe and found out that the IED, fashioned from a 60-mm mortar round with a mobile phone as a triggering device, was left unattended about three meters from the dirt road.

The second IED was found only a few meters away from the blast site.

Uy said the bombing could be part of a “diversionary tactic” of suspected Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to halt ongoing military operations against them in the province.

The incident came a day after government forces discovered an abandoned BIFF lair in Barangay Saniag, Ampatuan town situated about 30 kilometers from GSKP municipality.

“The ongoing operation of the JTFC targeting the BIFF aims to contain the terrorists who are plotting to launch bombing activities in Central Mindanao,” Uy said. (PNA)

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