- The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is the largest armed insurgent group.
- Campus security chief Taha Mandangan said it was an act of terrorism. This is not an ordinary feud between two people. A single bomb will kill everyone around.
- Violence has no region in a civilized society, and it is specifically abhorrent at an institution of better-gaining knowledge like MSU.
A powerful explosion ripped through a Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines on Sunday morning, killing at least four people and injuring several others.
The incident occurred during morning mass at a gymnasium at the state-run Marawi State University, causing panic among dozens of worshipers at the scene.
Marawi Bomb Attack
According to officials, two people were critically injured as army troops and police cordoned off the area and launched an investigation into who might be responsible for the attack. Security checkpoints have been set up in the Muslim-majority city of Marawi. All the dead were Christian worshippers.
“This is an act of terrorism. This is not an ordinary feud between two people. A bomb kills everyone around,” said Taha Mandangan, head of campus security. Despite years of military and police attacks, police have not ruled out the involvement of Muslim militants living in the area.
Meanwhile, the university said it was “deeply saddened and appalled” by the “senseless and cruel” violence, the BBC reported
The southern Philippines is a predominantly Muslim nation of Roman Catholics and the scene of a decades-old separatist insurgency. Marawi City was attacked by Islamist militants affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2017, killing more than 1,100 people, mostly militants, before a five-month siege was broken by airstrikes by Philippine forces and surveillance planes deployed by the United States. and Australia.
The largest armed rebel group called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed a peace deal with the government in 2014, easing decades of fighting. This changed when several small armed groups rejected the peace agreement and carried out bombings and other attacks while avoiding government attacks.
