BY JOEL CALAMBA ESCOL, Managing Editor
An improvised explosive device (IED) went off inside a bus in North Cotabato on Tuesday morning, which left at least six passengers injured, some of whom are children.
Col. Henry Villar, director of the North Cotabato Provincial Police Office, said the injured passengers were immediately taken to various hospitals in Midsayap town.
The injured passengers were identified as Masid Benjamin, 25; Rodolfo Castillo, 67; Haron Solaiman, 24; and three children aged five, three, and five months. They all sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies.
Villar said based on the accounts of one of the passengers, the IED was planted at the back portion of the Mindanao Star Bus (MSB) with body number 155, which was bound for Cotabato City.
He said the EID went off at around 8:10 in the morning while the bus was traversing the highway in Barangay San Mateo, Aleosan town in the province.
Villar said investigators were still at the blast site conducting a post-blast investigation.
He said no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came two days after police authorities have started imposing stricter checkpoints for the implementation of the election gun ban.
 went off inside a bus in North Cotabato on Tuesday morning, police reported.){kind=link}