Four arrested for alleged extortion<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A police officer shot and injured two technical
\nhigh school students and, with the help of bystanders, arrested
\ntwo others for allegedly extorting money from bus passengers in
\nEast Jakarta late Wednesday.<\/p>\n
City police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis told reporters on
\nThursday that the four students, along with several fellow
\nstudents, threatened passengers on a government-owned PPD public
\nbus, on the Tanjung Priok-Kampung Rambutan route 43, with sickles
\nand knives before taking cash and valuables.<\/p>\n
Lubis identified the two injured students as Muslih from STM
\nPoncol in Central Jakarta and Abdul Aziz of STM Matra in East
\nJakarta. Both senior technical high schools are privately run.
\nThe other two students arrested were Zakaria and Iwan Kurniawan.<\/p>\n
All of the four students were in police custody on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Based on preliminary police investigations and testimony from
\nwitnesses, the students entered the non-air conditioned PPD bus
\non Jl. D.I. Panjaitan at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\"Inside the bus, the students spread to all corners of the
\nvehicle,\" Lubis said.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said the teenagers moved so fast that passengers had
\nno chance to fight back.<\/p>\n
They surprised passengers and forced them to hand over
\nvaluables and cash, one passenger recalled.<\/p>\n
Luckily, another passenger, Halmardi, saw a policeman behind
\nthe bus riding a motorcycle.<\/p>\n
\"He screamed to alert the officer, who is apparently a Mobile
\nBrigade unit member,\" Lubis said.<\/p>\n
The officer, identified by Lubis only as Widayat, stopped the
\nbus in front of Grasera supermarket, where the students jumped
\nout of the bus and sprinted in all directions.<\/p>\n
Widayat fired three warning shots in the air in an attempt to
\nstop the students.<\/p>\n
Realizing his warning shots had been ignored by the teenagers,
\nofficer Widayat then aimed his gun, loaded with rubber bullets,
\nat the students.<\/p>\n
\"He saw the fleeing students carrying sickles, machetes and
\nknives,\" Lubis said.<\/p>\n
From the four students, police confiscated wristwatches,
\njewelry and Rp 450,000 (US$52) cash, Lubis said.<\/p>\n
The students, however, told reporters at the police station
\nthey did not threaten or steal anything from the bus passengers.<\/p>\n
Wounded Aziz claimed he was only helping his friends from
\nprivately run STM Bahariwan of North Jakarta meet the challenge
\nof another school to a fight.<\/p>\n
\"We were about to attack STM Bonser (East Jakarta) students,
\nwho were waiting for us near their school, but police stopped our
\nbus and told us to get out,\" he said. (emf)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/four-arrested-for-alleged-extortion-1447893297",
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