Central Mindanao Sees Preacher's Vehicle Bombed, Student Shot Dead

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Gunmen shot dead a Grade 12 Moro student separately studying Islamic theology on Tuesday, September 22, in Mlang town in Cotabato, barely three days after attackers bombed the vehicle of a Muslim preacher with a fragmentation grenade in Maguindanao del Sur province. Local executives told reporters on Wednesday that Grade 12 student Ridwan Beda Manampen was attacked by gunmen while walking at one spot in Purok 1 in Barangay Dungguan in Mlang, killing him instantly. Manampen, a student at a public school, was also studying Islam and the Arabic language at a Madrasah, or Islamic school, during Saturdays and Sundays. Relatives of Manampen told reporters and police investigators that he had no known enemies and was not involved in any criminal activity. Local executives, among them members of the multi-sector Mlang Municipal Peace and Order Council, separately said that Manampen’s assailants immediately escaped, leaving him sprawled on the ground, lifeless. Tuesday’s incident that left Manampen dead was preceded, three days earlier, by the bombing of the vehicle of Islamic preacher Hajim Halil while it was parked close to a roadside carwash shelter in Barangay Kitango in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur. Officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region told reporters that one of two men who approached Halil’s small van-type vehicle hurled a fragmentation grenade toward it, setting off a powerful explosion. No one was hurt in the grenade attack, but the powerful explosion that ripped through the area triggered panic among people nearby and damaged the front part of Halil’s vehicle.