COTABATO CITY (PNA) – Law enforcement operatives have neutralized one of the suspects in the Yellow Bus Lines (YBL) bombing in Tacurong City earlier this month, police said on Monday, Nov. 28.
Lt. Col. Lino Capellan, speaking for Sultan Kudarat Police Provincial Office, said Aiman Mandi Ali resisted arrest and was killed during a law enforcement operation here on Sunday, Nov. 27.
“We were to implement an arrest warrant in connection with the Nov. 6 bus bombing in Tacurong City when the suspect opened fire on lawmen,” Capellan told reporters here in an interview.
Also killed was Ali’s wife Hainurisa, who was in the same house during the 8:30 a.m. operation in Barangay Rosary Heights 6.
Capellan said the couple belonged to Dawlah Islamiya (DI) terrorist group under Salahuddin Hassan, a known DI leader operating in Maguindanao.
Capellan said Aiman was also linked to the Dec. 31, 2018 bombing of the South Seas Mall in this city.
Policemen found two .45-caliber pistols from the suspect’s home, fragmentation grenades, improvised bombs and bomb components, a motorbike, a multicab vehicle, a drone, and various identification cards.
A passenger was killed and 11 others, including the alleged bomb courier, were injured when an improvised bomb went off inside a Yellow Bus Lines unit near the Tacurong City bus terminal.
In the South Seas mall bombing four years ago, two were killed and nearly 30 were injured.