Copycat terrorists

It was saddening, not just disheartening, to realize terrorism remains deeply rooted in our country. It reared its ugly head again in the blasting of a Christian mass being held at the Mindanao State University (MSU) in Marawi City last Sunday. By bombing the Christian mass held at the MSU gymnasium for the first Sunday of Advent, it obviously tried to convey religious differences when there were none at all.

The MSU bombing followed the military operations that killed 11 members of terrorist group Dawlah Islamiyah in Maguindanao, including its declared leader Abdullah Sapal on Dec. 1. But the MSU bombing killed four and left 45 others, who are all non-combatants, injured. The four casualties included two teachers and two students of the MSU. And the rest of those injured in the blast are plain civilians, consisting of other school officials and the community members of the MSU.

As of this writing, police and military explosive experts are still doing forensic examinations on the improvised explosive device (IED). Recovered from the blast site were 60mm mortar rounds. Based on witness accounts, investigators of the Philippine National Police (PNP) indicated it was not carried out by any “suicide bomber” but the IED was remotely triggered. Forensics, however, has yet to determine if battery or cellphone was used as triggering device.

The PNP have yet to check veracity of reports that certain MSU students allegedly received text message from unknown caller about the bomb threat. However, the experiences in the past apparently made the alleged receivers of the bomb threat text message to ignore it as another hoax or prank, if not just a scare tactic.

At least two persons of interest were so far reportedly being pursued. Initial investigations point to the possible influence of the Islamic State of Iraq-Syria (ISIS) but now simply calls itself the Islamic State (IS) and declared the establishment of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in June 2014.

The IS-influenced groups, including here in the Philippines, have been trying to spread their terror campaign across the world.

This is the same international terror group to which the IS-influenced Maute bandits launched their