COTABATO CITY – Mayor Yacob Ampatuan of Rajah Buayan, Maguindanao has ordered an investigation into the grenade blast incident that killed two minors in a remote village of the town on Saturday.
Ampatuan also ordered the creation of a committee that will craft measures to prevent similar freak accidents in the future.
Two grade-schoolers were killed when a grenade they found while hunting for birds exploded as they were toying with it. Police identified the fatalities as Nash Utto and Edris Guiaman who both died of multiple shrapnel injuries all over their bodies.
“The children were hunting for birds in the wetland when they found a fragmentation grenade,” the mayor said quoting reports from village officials of Barangay Sampao.
Ampatuan told reporters Saturday that the victims were immediately buried by relatives according to Islamic rites.
Barangay Sampao was the site of previous skirmishes involving government forces and Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. “The grenade the children found could be part of the unexploded ordnance that litter the site of clashes,” Ampatuan said.
Measures, he said, must be in place to prevent a similar case in the future. He directed the town council and the village leaders to help craft steps for the safety of all, especially children who regularly wander in the vast wetlands of Maguindanao. (PNA)
