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SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao (MindaNews/03 July) — A mosque caretaker was killed when an improvised bomb exploded inside the compound of the Al Khariah mosque near the roundball leading to Mamasapano town here late Friday evening.
Initial investigations made by the police in Shariff Aguak showed that 20 minutes before the blast, two men on a motorbike were seen in the compound. The report said the blast occurred at around 10 p.m., shortly after the two men left.
The blast grazed the walls of the façade’s mosque and left a crater about 15-inch deep on the left side of the compound, facing the mosque.
Police identified the slain caretaker as Aminodin Satain whose head was hit by a shrapnel.
Police and military said the bomb was fashioned out of an 81-mm mortar.
Col. Mayoralgo dela Cruz of the 1st Mechanized Brigade said they are “still investigating the motive and the circumstances behind this incident. This may have been due to politics or due to personal reasons.”
The mayor of Shariff Aguak is Zahara Ampatuan, wife of Anwar the former mayor who is presently detained along with the Ampatuan patriarch, Andal Ampatuan, Sr., and his siblings Zaldy, Andal Jr., and Sajid and a brother in law in connection with the massacre of 58 persons, 32 of them media workers.
The mayor celebrated her first year in office by distributing school bags in the municipal gym on Saturday. (Ferdinanh Cabrera/MindaNews)