By Joseph Jubelag

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Police tightened security in Central Mindanao following a series of grenade attacks on New Year’s Eve here and in Midsayap, North Cotabato, that injured 30 people including two policemen.

At least 26 revelers were injured after someone lobbed a fragmentation grenade onto the oval plaza where people had gathered to greet the New Year starting at 9 p.m.

Two of the victims were policemen assigned to secure the area.

Thirty minutes later, another grenade explosion rocked Midsayap town in North Cotabato, where seven people were reported injured in the attack. Two men on board a tricycle threw the grenade at a store in Central Katingawan village, police said.

“We are still investigating if the two grenade-throwing incidents were part of the plot launched by terror groups,” regional police Chief Fidel Cimatu said.

He said intelligence reports indicated that the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front would be launching bomb attacks targeting key cities in Mindanao.

Earlier in the day, police discovered an improvised bomb inside a bus in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat.

Sultan Kudarat Police Chief Benhur Mongao said policemen found the bomb inside the bus owned by Husky Bus Co. while it was parked at the Isulan town terminal. The bus was bound for General Santos from Cotabato City, he said.

Deputy Police Chief Rex Anongos said that before the grenade attack, they had received intelligence reports that rogue MILF members were out to sow terror in the city.

“So far, we have yet to establish the identity of the perpetrators, “ Anongos said.

In Zamboanga City, police early Thursday disarmed a powerful homemade bomb left near a bus depot, the military said.

The device was made from an 81-millimeter mortar bomb and rigged to a timing device, similar to previous bombs used by MILF militants, it said.

A grenade attack Tuesday on a police outpost in General Santos wounded a policeman and two other people.

The same day, a suspected militant was killed when the improvised explosive device he had been carrying went off at a police checkpoint near the town of Esperanza, also in Mindanao.

Two of the wounded in the grenade attack in General Santos City remained in intensive care due to shrapnel wounds in the head.

City Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr. said the city government would shoulder the victims’ hospital bills. With AFP