Philippine city shuts down to protest bombings

[Coventina]

Source: AFP

COTABATO, Philippines (AFP) — Shops, restaurants and schools shut down in the large southern Philippine city of Cotabato on Friday in protest over a deadly bombing blamed on Islamic militants, eyewitnesses said.

Hundreds of protesters trooped to Christian churches and Muslim mosques across the city to listen to religious leaders condemn Sunday's bombing that left six people dead and more than 50 others wounded, they said.

"It?s like Good Friday," Araceli Abellera, a sidewalk vendor told reporters, referring to the holiest day of the Catholic calendar, as she looked down a long line of shuttered shops along the main road of the Christian-Muslim city of 155,000.

Many of the shops displayed banners condemning the bombing and frequent kidnappings that have mainly targeted the city's shopkeepers and their families.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hXFA6-NTOXf_ZuVU1SUcxwiqHJyg