Authorities nab Marawi bombing suspect

A joint team of Army soldiers and policemen arrested one of the suspects in the December 3 bombing on the Mindanao State University campus that left four dead and 72 injured.

Col. Xerxes Trinidad, chief of the Armed Forces Public Affairs Office said they have arrested a certain Jafar Gamo Sultan alias Jaf or Kurot in Barangay Dulay Proper in Marawi City on December 6.

Trinidad and the AFP only made the announcement today Friday, December 8.

The military said Sultan was allegedly a companion of a certain Omar, who was identified by witnesses as the one who planted the bomb made of a 60mm mortar shell and improvised explosive device under a plastic chair before the Advent Mass started at the Dimaporo Gymnasium in the main campus of Mindanao State University.

“This development shows the seriousness of the government in capturing the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on innocent civilians and in ensuring that similar incidents will not happen again,” Trinidad said.

Lt. Gen. William Gonzalez, commander of the AFP Western Mindanao said they have launched a manhunt against four leaders of the local Dawlah-Islamiya-Maute terrorist group believed to have been responsible for last Sunday’s bombing.

One of the leaders was identified as Khadafi Mimbesa, a resident of Masiu town in Lanao del Sur who uses the aliases “Engineer, Kadi and Akoya.” He is allegedly a bomb-making expert and sub-leader of the Dawlah Islamiyah-Maute group in Lanao del Sur.

“We believed that the four were in constant communications with each other in planning for the attack,” Gonzalez said.

Meanwhile, Jennie Alonto Tamano, Lanao del Sur provincial spokesperson updated their list of casualties injured by the bombing from 46 to 72 persons.

Tamano said 48 victims have been discharged from the hospital while six were still confined at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City. She said 17 are still being treated at the MSU Infirmary in the campus.