Blast kills son of worship leader in Maguindanao

KIDAPAWAN CITY — The son of a worship leader was killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off inside a mosque in Sharif Aguak town in Maguindanao around 10 p.m. Friday, police report said Saturday. Authorities identified the fatality as Asrad Sapar, son of an Imam assigned at the mosque. Sapar died of multiple shrapnel wounds in different parts of his body, according to Maguindanao provincial police director Sr. Supt. Marcelo Pintac. Pintac said witnesses saw two men inside the mosque who hurriedly left the area, minutes before the blast. Elements of the Explosives and Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team found fragments of an 81-mm mortar at the blast site, the report The blast in Sharif Aguak was the third in Central Mindanao this week. Last Monday, an IED made from an 81-mm mortar exploded in front of the building of the Commission on Audit (CAA) in Kidapawan City. No one was killed or injured in the blast. Also on that day, bomb experts defused two IEDs planted in a passenger vehicle plying the Cotabato-Isulan route. Malu Cadelina Manar/LBG, GMA News