City's crime rate stays high during Idul Fitri holidays
City's crime rate stays high during Idul Fitri holidays
JAKARTA (JP): The massive exodus of about a third of the
city's nine million souls for the recent Idul Fitri festivities
failed to reduce the number of criminal acts and fatal accidents
in the city and its surrounding areas.
Crime in the capital was still high yesterday, three days
after the first day of the Idul Fitri holidays.
Violent murders, robberies and fatal accidents have hit the
city, which has been left by about three million people for both
the Moslem celebration and the Chinese Lunar Year.
At least five men were killed on Thursday and yesterday alone.
Zainal Asikin, 40, an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver, died
with no less than 13 severe stab wounds in his head and abdomen.
He is strongly believed to have been killed by the two passengers
he was carrying on a lonely road near Kampung Mariuk in Desa
Gandasari village in Cibitung, Bekasi, in the early hours
yesterday.
After killing the ojek driver, the culprits threw the dead
body on the road side and took Asikin's bike and wallet.
Arrest
The two suspects, identified as Sabin, 19, and Markam, 20,
were arrested a few minutes later by local military officers
thanks to tips from security officers of the Lippo Cikarang
housing complex.
The security officers stopped the men after noticing that the
motorcycle Sabin was driving appeared to be smeared with fresh
blood. The suspects tried to bribe the officers by offering Rp
50,000 in cash. But the officers flatly rejected the offer.
According to his brother, Asikin had decided to work hard
until early in the morning in order to earn money for one of his
sons, who was going to be circumcized.
The second case took place on Thursday evening on Jl. Sentra
Primer, Cakung,in East Jakarta when a driver of a Metromini bus
on the Kampung Melayu-Cakung route was brutally attacked by a
group of six passengers, who refused to pay the official fare.
Eyewitnesses said that driver Edison Tampubolon, 30, was
attacked on board the bus while trying to help his conductor
force the six men to pay up.
He died instantly when one of the passengers hit him over the
head with an iron bar.
Tampubolon's colleagues were angry and urged the local police
to arrest the six men, believed to be local residents.
On Thursday, a young activist at a local mosque at Sawah Ujung
in Pedongkelan village in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, was fatally
stabbed while trying to break up a fight.
Still at large
Two unidentified men, believed to have killed Agus Heryadi,
21, are still at large.
Also on Thursday, the corpse of a maintenance department
official at the Graha Aktiva building on Jl. Rasuna Said in South
Jakarta was found dead, his head crushed by the lift he had been
repairing.
Ahmad Daruri, 37, died when the lift was turned on by his
colleague, Pramono.
The Setiabudi police could not yet say whether Pramono would
be detained or not.
Earlier in the day, an elderly man, with no identification on
his person, was found dead, his head, legs and arms mangled, on
the Klender railway track in Cakung, East Jakarta.
The local police have sent the unidentified corpse to Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital in order to allow any relatives of
missing persons to identify the body.
Police yesterday also reported a pre-dawn robbery at the house
of an Australian pilot in Bintaro subdistrict in Pesanggrahan,
South Jakarta.
There were no fatalities. But Jon Louis, 36, the owner, was
quoted by local detectives as saying that the robbers had stolen
his 20-inch television set, laser disc player and several
documents, including his passport. (bsr)