GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/19 June) — At least five persons were injured when an improvised bomb exploded inside a video bar in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province Saturday night, police said.
Senior Supt. Danilo Peralta, Sultan Kudarat police director, said in a police report that the bomb went off at around 8:45pm at the Starlight
Videoke Bar located along the nation al highway in Barangay Buenaflor in Tacurong City.
He said five women bar workers were injured in the blast but were declared out of danger by doctors at a private hospital in the area.
Peralta said investigators of the Tacurong City police’s scene of the crime operation or Soco team were still determining the type of explosive that
went off inside the establishment.
But police and Army personnel who rushed to the scene following the explosion initially reported that the bomb was fashioned from an 81mm mortar shell.
The police official said they were still investigating the possible motives and suspects in the blast.
He said they have maintained the full alert status in the area and intensified their security operations in public places and various strategic
points in the city to avert similar attacks.
Peralta said they established additional checkpoints in entry and exit points of the area to monitor possible movements by terror groups and other criminal elements.
Two weeks ago, Tacurong City police operatives recovered a powerful bomb in front of a department store that was fashioned from two 81mm mortar shells.
The explosive, defused by local explosives ordnance disposal or EOD personnel, was stacked inside a box and reportedly left by an unidentified
woman underneath a table of a balut vendor posted infront of the Tacurong FitMart department store.
Peralta earlier said the explosive, found near a bus stop, might have been intended for a major attack in a key area in Region 12 or Southwestern
Mindanao.
The region comprises the provinces of South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato and the cities of Koronadal, General Santos, Tacurong, Kidapawan and Cotabato.
(Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)
