APD | Police, civilian injured in Indonesia's N. Sumatra terrorist’s bomb explosion

By APD writer Aditya Nugraha

JAKARTA, March 12 (APD) — At least one police and a civilian seriously injured by explosion of a bomb that went off in terrorist suspect’s house in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province city of Sibolga on Tuesday, Indonesia National Police Headquarters Muhammad Iqbal said here. 

Indonesia National Police Headquarters Spokesman Mohammad Iqbal

The explosion came up when members of police’s anti-terror squad were about to enter the house of a terrorist suspect identified as Husain, alias Abu Hamzah, who was arrested in the city earlier in the day, Iqbal said. 

“We are yet to find out whether the bomb was detonated from inside the house or remotely from somewhere outside the house,” Iqbal said, adding that the injured ones have been rushed to nearby hospital. 

The situation in the location was a bit challenging as the wife and children of the terrorist suspect were inside the house, guarded by a man who resisted to surrender. 

Iqbal said that efforts to lure people inside the house to come out and surrender was still underway at the moment, helped by local religious and community figures. 

The arrest on Husain was related to series of police’s arrests against terrorist suspects in Lampung and West Kalimantan provinces over the weekend.

Iqbal said Husain was linked with the one arrested in Lampung province on Saturday. 

“Based on information from the arrested terrorist suspect in Lampung, we pursued Husain in Sibolga and managed to arrest him,” Iqbal added. 

The terrorist suspects arrested in Lampung and West Kalimantan provinces planned to launch attacks against police facilities in the two provinces. 

The one in Lampung has more plans to carry out the attacks in the capital city of Jakarta, Iqbal said. 

Meanwhile, from the arrested terrorist suspect in West Kalimantan, police confiscated bombs,   half-assembled bombs and explosive materials from his house.

Police said that the ones arrested in Lampung and West Kalimantan provinces were linked to Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a homegrown terrorist group which had stated its allegiance to Islamic State (IS). 

JAD was responsible for series of terror attacks in several cities in Indonesia, including the one in Jakarta in January 2016 that killed 8 and injured 24 others. 

An Indonesian court has delivered death sentence against JAD leader Aman Abdurrahman in June last year under the charge of masterminded those terror attacks.  

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)