Police arrest another bombing suspect<\/p>\n
Jupriadi, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, South Sulawesi<\/p>\n
Police investigating last week's bombings of a McDonald's outlet
\nand a car dealership in Makassar, South Sulawesi, arrested
\nanother suspect on Tuesday, and continued the hunt for a man
\nbelieved to be the mastermind of the bombings that killed three
\npeople and injured 11 others.<\/p>\n
Security personnel arrested Ilham, 22, on Tuesday at his
\nfamily's home at Makampa village, Bone regency, bringing the
\nnumber of suspects now detained to four.<\/p>\n
Police had already arrested three suspects: Muchtar, Usman and
\nMasnur. Another, Ansar, was killed in the explosion.<\/p>\n
With the arrest of Ilham, only one of the six suspects in the
\nMakassar bombings is still at large: Agung Hamid, believed by
\npolice investigators to be the mastermind of the bombings.<\/p>\n
The arrest of four suspects came just under a week after the
\nbombings, much faster when compared with the Bali terrorist
\nattacks where investigators needed almost a month before they
\ncould arrest the suspects.<\/p>\n
Police investigators have also declared the suspects to be
\npart of the terrorist network linked to the deadly Bali bombings
\non Oct. 12, in which over 190 people were killed and some 300
\ninjured.<\/p>\n
The swift arrest of suspects in the bombings has earned both
\npraise and questions for the police as they were apparently
\nunable to find the perpetrators of previous bomb attacks across
\nthe country, notably the church bombings on Christmas Eve in
\n2000.<\/p>\n
South Sulawesi Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani denied on
\nTuesday an intelligence report that police had prior knowledge of
\nthe bombing plans for Makassar and the identity of the bombers
\nbut had failed to take preventive measures to foil the incident.<\/p>\n
\"It's a lie. It was impossible that the police could have
\nknown about it beforehand,\" he said. \"Had we known about the
\nsuspects before they staged the bombings, we would certainly have
\narrested them,\" he stressed.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Masnur, a key suspect believed to be a bomb maker,
\ndenied on Tuesday any involvement in the McDonald's bombing and
\nany link with Laskar Jundullah, a radical group implicated in the
\nincident.<\/p>\n
\"That's only a police accusation. It's not true,\" he told The
\nJakarta Post upon his arrival at 9:45 a.m. at South Sulawesi's
\nHasanuddin international airport.<\/p>\n
The suspect, wearing an eye-glass and a traditional Muslim
\nwhite cap, was flown to Makassar from Kendari, Southeast
\nSulawesi, by commercial Garuda Citilink plane under tight guard.
\nShortly after his arrival, he was taken directly to the South
\nSulawesi Police Headquarters for further interrogation.<\/p>\n
Masnur also denied assembling the bomb along with another
\nsuspect, Muchtar Daeng Lau, who is believed to have been trained
\nin Afghanistan and the Philippines, and is suspected to be a
\nmember of Laskar Jundullah.<\/p>\n
\"I don't know about that,\" Masnur said when asked whether he
\nhad manufactured the bomb at his Abadi Raya Makassar metal
\nworkshop, located on Jl. Jufri No. I.<\/p>\n
However, the police have said they found four detonators, 2.5
\nkilograms of TNT, iron casings for bombs, other raw materials and
\na manual on how to assemble bombs at the raided workshop.<\/p>\n
Asked why he had fled to Kolaka regency, Masnur said, \"I'd
\nsimply returned home to celebrate Idul Fitri on Tuesday\".<\/p>\n
Southeast Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Tengku Asikin
\nHusein played down Masnur's denials. \"For a suspect it is normal
\nto deny all accusations. But we have obtained strong evidence
\nproving his involvement,\" he was quoted by Antara as saying in
\nKendari.<\/p>\n
Husein cited the police discovery of the detonators, the bomb-
\nmaking manual and explosives during the raid on Masnur's
\nworkshop.<\/p>\n
Husein said police in Southeast Sulawesi had questioned Masnur
\nfor six hours on Monday night but he mostly remained silent apart
\nfrom denying all the accusations.<\/p>\n
Masnur, a father of six children, graduated in 1987 from the
\neconomics department at the Indonesian Muslim University (UMI) in
\nMakassar.<\/p>\n
Police are hunting down Agung Hamid in the Central Sulawesi
\ncapital of Palu and also in Java.<\/p>\n
\"He may be hiding in Yogyakarta, Surabaya or another city in
\nJava. We're tracking him down,\" Firman said. Agung is believed to
\nhave at least two wives, including one in Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
Firman said the police had questioned at least 28 witnesses,
\nincluding Jono, who is suspected of being a member of a radical
\ngroup waging war in Poso, Central Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
Jono sent an SMS message to another witness, Desy, to ask her
\nwhether the bomb at McDonald's had already exploded, Firman said
\nwithout elaborating.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/police-arrest-another-bombing-suspect-1447893297",
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