Bomb found at busy Jakarta railway station

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

One week after a bomb exploded in Pamulang, Tangerang, the Jakarta Police's bomb squad have defused a bomb placed inside a shopping bag in the parking lot of Tanjung Barat Railway Station in South Jakarta, just before midnight on Tuesday.

It was the first bomb to be found in a public place after weeks of bomb hoaxes that have put police and security officers in the capital on high alert.

A local resident, whose name was not disclosed by police, noticed a suspicious plastic shopping bag in the station's parking lot, not far from the ticket box, at 7:30 p.m., and he subsequently reported this to police.

City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said on Wednesday that upon receiving the report the police bomb squad was sent to the scene.

"We examined the bag for several hours and found low explosive materials inside it. We found bomb components and devices, including 300 grams of chemicals, a detonator, a battery, and an on-off switch," said Tjiptono, adding that police also discovered 15 nails inside the bag.

Police defused the bomb and declared the area safe at 11:00 p.m., he said.

"The bomb makers arranged it in such a way that if we lifted the bomb chemicals from the devices then it would explode. That's why we needed hours to defuse it," he said.

Tanjung Barat Railway Station is located between Pasar Minggu -- one of the busiest places in the area -- and Depok in West Java.

The headquarters of the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is situated about 500 meters from the station.

Looking at the components, Tjiptono said, the bomb appeared to be similar to a small bomb that exploded outside of Muslim cleric Abu Jibril's house in Pamulang, Tangerang on June 8.

No one was injured in the Pamulang blast, which made a 20- centimeter diameter wide crater about six centimeters in depth.

Police are still searching for two suspects on a motorcycle and have so far questioned more than 10 people, including Abu Jibril, security guard Sutedjo, Edy, and Sana, an official at the nearby mosque.

Jibril, 47, alias Moh. Iqbal, was suspected of being a senior member of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) network, which is accused of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2003 JW Marriott hotel blast, and last year's blast outside the Australian Embassy.

The Central Jakarta Court sentenced him to five and half months's jail for passport fraud last year.

Tjiptono said that the police could not yet conclude whether the bomb found at Tanjung Barat had anything to do with the Pamulang blast as they were still questioning witnesses and gathering more evidence.

"We are now questioning three witnesses, including the one who called us to report the bag. We are still investigating if the Pamulang bombing has any connection with what we found in Tanjung Barat," he said.