LAMBAYONG, Sultan Kudarat (July 31) — A town councilor and his cousin survived a grenade attack here on Saturday morning but two persons were slightly injured, police said.
Supt. Aldrin Gonzales said the Army’s 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion is now helping the police in Sultan Kudarat to hunt down two men who hurled grenades at the house of Mayor Ramon Abalos of Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat that left a town councilor and his cousin injured at 6:50 a.m. Saturday.
Gonzales identified the injured official as town Councilor Carlos Abalos and his cousin, Richard Abalos, a town public supervisor.
They sustained minor injuries. The victims were in the house of Lambayong Mayor Ramon Abalos in Purok Pag-asa, Barangay Poblacion, Sultan Kudarat when two men on motorbike passed and tossed a fragmentation grenade that landed on a concrete pavement near the parked vehicle of Mayor Abalos.
Police said the vehicle served as a wall between the blast site and the victims. Minutes after the explosion in Mayor Abalos’ home in Purok Pag-asa, Barangay Poblacion, the same suspects on motorbike tossed another hand grenade at the compound of Lambayong municipal police office.
The suspects then fled on the same motorbike leading toward the police station and tossed the second fragmentation grenade. Nobody was hurt in the police station grenade attack.
Abalos believed the grenade attack was perpetrated by personalities involved in illegal drugs because of his no nonsense campaign against the proliferation of illegal drugs in town. The victims are now getting medical attention in a hospital in Tacurong City, about 5 kilometers from Lambayong.
Chief Supt. Marcelo Morales, police director for Region 12 and Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejano, 6th Infantry Division commander have separately directed their subordinates to help hunt down the suspects who could be members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. Lambayong town is adjacent to Maguindanao where the BIFF operates. (Edwin O. Fernandez/ NewsLine.ph
