Police are looking at the extortion racket of an extremist group based in Central Mindanao as the motive behind the bombing of a restaurant in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat last Wednesday.
Police Brig. Gen. Eliseo Rasco, director of the Central Mindanao police, said they have identified at least one person responsible for the bombing who is identified with the Dawlah Islamiyah.
The group is reportedly headed by a certain Abu Toraife. Most of the members of the group are from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a breakaway faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“We are now preparing charges against him and his other accomplices,” said Rasco in a phone interview.
The bomb courier remains at large and is now being hunted down by the police based in the description of the witnesses and the closed circuit camera television footage.
A week before the explosion at Carlito’s Chicken Haus, Rasco said the owner of the establishment received an extortion demand through text messages.
The improvised explosive device was inside a bag which was abandoned at the restaurant.
A waiter thought that the man accidentally left the bag. He then gave it back to the man who was already leaving the place, police investigators said.
The bag was abandoned near the compressor of an airconditioner outside the restaurant where it exploded a few minutes later.
Rasco said the blast injured 18 persons. The explosion would have a deadly impact if it exploded inside the restaurant, police said. (Aaron Recuenco)