Two people were killed after a grenade blew up inside a mosque in Zamboanga City early Wednesday, just three days after a bomb attack on a Catholic church killed 21 people and injured 112 others in Jolo, Sulu.
The latest explosion occurred inside the Kamahaldikaan Mosque in Sitio Logoy Diutay, Talon-Talon, Zamboanga City, during the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday. Two members of a Tabligh or missionary group from Basilan were killed.
Blood-streaked prayer mats and shattered glass could be seen on the floor inside the mosque where heavily armed security forces were standing guard, footage from the scene showed.
READ: Jolo blasts: 20 dead, 81 hurt
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the Islamic State terrorist group could have launched both attacks to spark a religious war in Mindanao. Such an effort would fail, however, because neither the Catholics nor mainstream Muslims wants a war, he said.
“In the past when churches were bombed… there were no revenge attacks,” he said.
Chief Supt. Graciano Mijares, police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the explosion was from a grenade.
Mijares identified the fatalities as Haj Sattal Bato, 46 and Rex Habil, 46, while the wounded were Palson Asgali, 46; Alnizcar Sabbaha, 41; Jikilani Albani, 67 and Amidz Kassara, 30.
READ: ISIS owns up to Jolo blasts
Reports said the victims were sleeping inside the mosque when the grenade was hurled into it by unidentified suspects.
Col. Gerry Besana, spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command, said the victims were members of the Tabligh from Basilan who sought shelter for the night at the mosque. They were the to teach Islam to children, police said.
Lt. Gen. Arnel dela Vega of the Western Mindanao Command urged the public not to speculate or propagate false information about the attacks, saying this would only make matters worse.
The attacks have cast a shadow over hopes that voters’ decisive push to give Muslims in the south more control over their own affairs would help quell long-running separatist violence.
Rebels and the government in Manila have expressed hope the new so-called Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will finally draw the investment needed to pull the region out of the brutal poverty that makes it a hot spot for recruiting radicals.
However, hardline factions aligned with ISIS were not part of the decades-long peace process with the nation’s largest separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, that culminated Jan. 21 with the resounding approval of a new Muslim-led region in the south.
Sulu, which includes Jolo, is home to hardline Islamist factions and was the only area in Mindanao that voted against the Bangsamoro.
The grenade attack on Wednesday drew immediate condemnation from authorities.
“There is no redeeming such blasphemous murder. It is the highest form of cowardice and obscenity to attack people who at prayer,” said regional leader Mujiv Hataman.
“We call on people of all faiths… to come together to pray for peace.”
The Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito G. Galvez said the grenade attack demonstrated the “extreme length terrorists will go to in order to sow fear, hatred and terror among the populace.”
“Clearly, the perpetrators of these terror acts do not have any respect for human life and are willing to engage in mass murder in order to promote their twisted and extremist ideologies. By and large, they are enemies of the state and must be stopped at all costs,” he said.
Against the backdrop of a series of terrorist attacks, the Palace said the Armed Forces will “ferociously and relentlessly” unleash its might against the enemies of the state.
“Terrorism has once again reared its barbaric and ugly head by unleashing another bomb in a mosque in Zamboanga killing at least two Muslim religious followers and injuring four others,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines will unleash its might and weaponry against these enemies of the state and hunt them ferociously and relentlessly until the law rolls down its guillotine on them,” he said.
The Palace official said the latest attack was “a taunting challenge to the capability of the government to secure the safety of the inhabitants in Mindanao.”
“The successive attacks on two different places of worship depict the ruthlessness and the godlessness of these mass murderers,” Panelo said.
The Jolo bomb attack came days after the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law and days before the oral arguments on the constitutionality of the third martial law extension in Mindanao.
On the sidelines of his confirmation hearing before the Senate, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr. urged the public to be cautious and vigilant.
“There are some sectors who want to put religious undertone to what happened and we’d like to ask our constituents, our people to be sober and more vigilant,” Madrigal said.
“We are still investigating the culprits behind the bombings, and looking into all possible angles,” he said.
Former Senate president and defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile warned that there was a danger of more violent attacks if martial law is lifted in Mindanao.
“[There would be] more violence if there is no martial law in Mindanao. That is the deterrent and the restraining power,” Enrile said in a radio interview following news of the mosque attack.
He said the government must use “violence against violence” in dealing with terrorists.
“That’s the purpose of your police and your military. Why do we have a military? Why do we have police? Because the state must have the monopoly of legal violence to control the deviant and aberrant in society,” he said.
During the oral arguments on the petitions against the third extension of martial law in Mindanao this week, the Supreme Court engaged Solicitor General Jose Calida and the AFP in an agreement to lift martial law in Mindanao if the military can reduce the capability of terrorist groups in Mindanao by at least 70 percent.
The petitions were filed against the extension of martial law, which was granted by Congress in December 2018.
Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV denounced the grenade attack and urged the public to come together to condemn violence, because the terrorists wanted to divide the people.
“Now is the time to come together to denounce violence as it has no place in our society,” Aquino said. With AFP