COTABATO CITY – (Updated Jan. 28, 7:03 a.m.) Authorities are looking at who are behind the two residents of Pikit, North Cotabato who died Tuesday night when an improvised explosive device they were supposed to detonate prematurely blew up.
Also on Tuesday, authorities found three IEDs at a tower of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) in Pagalungan, Maguindanao.
The IEDs were made out of 60 mm mortars and installed on Tower 25 in Barangay Layog.
The IED that blew up in Pikit around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday was attached to a mobile phone.
Police identified the two men who died with it as Jomar Palaguyan at Asrap Muhammad, both residents of Barangay Balatikan in Pikit.
Civilian Froilan Arhera, 35, of Barangay Calawag was wounded by shrapnel in the chest.
Police Inspectpr Sindatuk Karim, Pikit police chief, said earlier the explosion took place in front of the Ivan Convenience Store on Quezon Street.
Karim said the two men were believed to be the carriers of the explosive device. They were on board a motorcycle when it exploded prematurely.
Post-blast investigation continues as to what exactly is the cellphone-triggered IED that would have been used for an unknown target but which blew up prematurely, according to 7th IB Commanding Officer Col Odie Edralin
The two men were riding a Bajaj motorbike with license plate no. A-6319.
Probers, meanwhile, are still determining who are responsible for the attempt to bomb Tower 25 of the NGCP.
The discovery of the three IDs comes on the heels of two earlier explosions of NGCP towers in Pikit town.
(Pikit residents mill around the bodies of two men, both from Bgay. Balatikan in the town, as they lie beside their black motorbike. The two died when an IED they were believed to be prepping for an unknown target prematurely blew up. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY NUR GAYAK)
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