Cops unable to solve bomb hoaxes<\/p>\n
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Employees working in the Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) Plaza
\non Jl. M.H. Thamrin, Central Java rushed out of their office last
\nThursday, seconds after Dedi Junaedi received a call saying that
\na bomb was about to explode.<\/p>\n
Dedi, a BII customer service staff, said a woman called up at
\naround 14:45 that a bomb had been placed in the building and
\nwould explode shortly.<\/p>\n
The news spread out very rapidly, with employees screaming and
\nrushing out of their offices.<\/p>\n
An antibomb squad from the Jakarta Police, who arrived shortly
\nafter, searched the building but found nothing suspicious. They
\nthen declared the building bomb-free after an hour of intensive
\nsearch.<\/p>\n
Earlier on that same day, a similar hoax took place at Wisma
\nManulife on Jl. Pegangsaan Timur, Central Jakarta. A man called
\nup the building at around 12:25 p.m., saying that he had placed a
\nbomb at the back of the building.<\/p>\n
An antibomb squad swept the building, but found nothing. After
\na thorough investigation, they declared the area free from bomb.<\/p>\n
Bomb hoaxes have continued to plaque the capital in past few
\nyears, with police finding themselves powerless to trace the
\nculprits.<\/p>\n
At least five bomb hoaxes were reportedly received by office
\nbuildings, school, hotel and malls last week.<\/p>\n
Police said they have received hundreds of bomb hoax calls
\nfrom the public informing since last year and had managed to
\narrest only one, a love-struck woman who wanted to prevent her
\nsecurity guard boyfriend from going home in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Erlangga Masdiana, a criminologist of the University of
\nIndonesia, said that unless the police managed to arrest the
\nperpetrators, bomb hoaxes would continue to beleaguer the
\ncapital, where two major terrorists attacks killed dozens of
\npeople in 2002 and 2004 respectively.<\/p>\n
\"People notice that many perpetrators can walk free after
\nmaking bomb hoaxes so they tend to copy their actions. If the
\npolice can arrest them and deal with them sternly, than it will
\ncreate a deterrent effect,\" he told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Arresting the perpetrators, however, has proven to be very
\ndifficult as police were completely clueless about the culprits.<\/p>\n
Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said recently that
\nthey found it difficult arresting the culprits due to lack of
\ncooperation from cellular provider firms to track down the
\ncallers or SMS senders.<\/p>\n
He also said that unless prepaid card numbers are registered,
\npolice would continue to have difficulties in arresting bomb hoax
\nperpetrators.<\/p>\n
The country's first and deadliest terrorist attack, killing
\nover 200 people Bali in October 2001, is believed to have been
\ntriggered by a cellular phone.<\/p>\n
The government has given cellular telephone operators until
\nApril to register prepaid numbers. Some companies, however, have
\ncomplained that they had difficulties registering numbers now in
\nthe hands of their customers.<\/p>\n
Telecommunication and multimedia expert R.M. Roy Suryo said
\nthat the police simply could not do anything to trace the callers
\nor the short message service (SMS) senders without any clue on
\nthe identity and location of the perpetrators.<\/p>\n
\"All of the callers or senders are likely to have used the
\nprepaid numbers, which they threw away shortly after making the
\nbomb hoax call. As such, there is no way that the police can
\ntrace them,\" he told the Post.<\/p>\n
Police's job was made difficult by the fact that no law
\nrequired cellular provider firms to cooperate with the police,
\nRoy said.<\/p>\n
He said that the firms were reluctant to share information
\nwith the police as it would violate their customers' privacy.<\/p>\n
Roy and Erlangga agreed that the only way to stop bomb hoaxes
\nwas to register the prepaid numbers as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
\"I think consumers still have privacy if there is a clear
\nregulation on how far police can exercise their authorities,\"
\nsaid Roy.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/cops-unable-to-solve-bomb-hoaxes-1447893297",
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