BANDUNG, Indonesia — A suspected Islamic militant suicide bomber killed a police officer and wounded 10 other people in
an attack on a police station in the Indonesian city of Bandung on Wednesday,
police said.
Police identified the attacker as 34-year-old Agus
Sujatno, who was linked to the pro-Daesh Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) and had
already served four years in a maximum security prison for his involvement in a
2017 bombing.
“The fingerprint test and the facial recognition
identified the perpetrator as Agus Sujatno,” national police chief Listyo Sigit told a press conference in Bandung, capital of West Java province.
He was released in September 2021 after serving his
sentence for a previous bombing in Bandung, Sigit added.
Wednesday’s blast occurred at about 8am at the
Astana Anyar police office in Bandung.
“When our officers were doing the morning roll call,
a man tried to enter the office forcibly and officers tried to stop him,” said
West Java police chief Suntana, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
“The perpetrator insisted on getting closer to our
officers while wielding a knife and suddenly an explosion happened,” he told
reporters.
A witness who was near the police station said he
heard a very loud explosion.
“I heard a bang,
it was so loud. I took a peek inside the police office and I saw thick smoke
billowing,” Didin Khaerudin, who runs a nearby kiosk, told AFP, adding police
ordered shops to close after the blast.
A second device was later found nearby and safely
detonated by the police bomb squad, Suntana said.
A civilian passerby was among the injured, who were
mostly hit by shattered glass and debris, he said.
Police said they had found paper messages attached
to the blue motorbike ridden by the attacker.
The messages denounced the Indonesian criminal code
as a product of “infidels” and urged people to wage a war against law
enforcers, police said.
Police also found a stack of papers at the scene
rejecting a newly passed amendment to the criminal code.
Some Islamist extremists have called for the
implementation of Sharia (Islamic law) in Indonesia, which officially
recognizes five religions in addition to Islam.
Members of JAD have staged other attacks, including
a series of suicide bombings in May 2018 against several churches and a police
headquarters in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-biggest city.
Those attacks, carried out by families including
children, killed a dozen people.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority
nation, has long struggled with Islamist militancy.
The Indonesian resort island of Bali was the scene
of Southeast Asia’s worst militant attack when Al-Qaeda-linked militants
detonated bombs at a bar and nightclub that killed more than 200 people in
October 2002.
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