Suspect in MSU bombing arrested

MANILA, Philippines: A suspect in the bombing of the Mindanao State University (SU) in Marawi City has been arrested, a spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines told The Manila Times.

Citing an initial report, Col. Xerxes Trinidad, chif of the AFP Public Affairs Office, said the suspect was identified as one Jafar Gamo Sultan, alias Jaf/Kurot, whose affiliation to a terror group remains uncertain.

ARRESTED A photo released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) shows Jafar Gamo Sultan, a.k.a. Jaf/Kurot, one of the alleged accomplices in the bombing at Mindanao State University in Mrawi City on December 3. PHOTO FROM AFP FACEBOOK PAGE

Trinidad said Sultan was allegedly one of the accomplices who caused the blast using a 60-mm mortar in the middle of a Catholic mass at about 7 a.m. on December 3. At least four people were killed and scores were injured in the incident.

Sultan was apprehended in an operation by Task Force Marawi in Barangay Dulay Proper in Marawi, on the basis of an intelligence report and witnesses accounts outside of MSU. The task force is a special contingent created by the AFP and Marawi City police.

The captured suspect, Trinidad said, had a companion, a certain Omar, the alleged person identified by witnesses who had placed the improvised explosive device at the Dimaporo Gymnasium.

During the capture of Sultan, troopers also seized two motorcycles.

«This development shows the seriousness of the government in capturing the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on innocent civilians and in ensuring that similar incidents will not happen again,» Trinidad said.

«It also demonstrates the AFP's commitment to its mandate as protector of the people and the state,» he added.

The suspect will be turned over to the police for further investigation.

AFP Chief Romeo Brawner who was attending the Christmas party sponsored by the Defense department for members of the Defense Press Corps in Camp Aguinaldo on Thursday night, was informed of the arrest.

Brawner instructed his lieutenants to furnish him with a progress report of the ongoing follow-operations against other suspects involved in the explosion.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday