A combined police-Army team on Wednesday arrested a suspected Egyptian terrorist in a residential district in Cotabato City and found in his apartment materials used to fabricate homemade bombs and reading materials espousing religious extremism.| Police seized materials supposedly used in bomb-making, including detonating cords, pellets, clocks, a mortar booster, firing wire, batteries, Christmas bulbs, cell phone chargers and switches. |
A book entitled "Yayasan Pusakan Sawono" and a military manual of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front were also confiscated.
| Police said they are now investigating whether the suspect is a member of a terrorist organization. |
Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the ArmyÂ’s 6th Infantry Division, said the suspect was taken to the city's police station for detention. "The suspect is now undergoing interrogation," Ando said.
Ando said intelligence operatives of the 6th ID are still hot on the trail of SayedÂ’s companions and contacts in Cotabato City and Shariff Kabunsuan. Government security units have arrested more than a dozen suspicious foreigners, mostly of Middle Eastern origins, in Central Mindanao in the past three years.