Government troops have arrested a suspect in the deadly bombing at the Mindanao State University (MSU) in Marawi City, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) revealed on Friday, Dec. 8.
Combined troops of the military's Task Force Marawi and the Marawi City Police captured Jafar Gamo Sultan alias "Jaf/Kurot", who the military said is an accomplice in the Dec. 3 explosion at the Dimaporo Gymnasium of MSU which killed four people and injured 72 others.
Col. Xerxes Trinidad, chief of AFP public affairs office, said Sultan was caught in an operation in Brgy. Dulay Proper, Marawi City on Wednesday, Dec. 6.
"The suspect is a companion of a certain Omar, the person identified by witnesses to have placed the improvised explosive device at the Dimaporo Gymnaisum," Trinidad said on Friday, Dec. 8.
The AFP released a 1:56-minute long closed circuit television (CCTV) footage which showed a suspicious man wearing a cap and black hoodie, presumed to be Sultan, entering the Dimaporo Gymnasium at 6:09 a.m. on the day of the explosion.
At the time, there was an ongoing mass at the gymnasium attended by many people and the suspicious man appeared to have surveyed the area. At 6:13 a.m., the man exited the gymnasium.
Another suspicious man wearing white polo and cap, presumed to be alias Omar, entered the gymnasium while carrying a bag at 7:03 a.m. The guy wearing a black hoodie then went back to the entrance of the gymnasium.
At 7:11 a.m., the guy with the white polo went out of the gymnasium without his bag along with the guy with the black hoodie. A minute later, the explosion took place.
The CCTV footage also showed the guy with the white polo supposedly pressing a triggering device.
Trinidad said the troops also recovered two motorcycles from the arrested suspect.
"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. It also demonstrates the AFP's commitment to its mandate as protector of the people and the state," he said.
Meanwhile, the arrested suspect was different from the two men earlier identified by the Philippine National Police (PNP) as suspects in the Marawi blast.
The PNP identified their own set of suspects as Kadapi Mimbesa alias "Engineer", and Arsani Mimbesa alias "Katab/Papitos".