Experts identify TNT in railway track bombing

JAKARTA (JP): The bomb that exploded on a railroad track in Serpong district on Saturday contained trinitrotoluene (TNT), the deputy chief of the National Police Forensics Laboratory, Sr. Comr. Dudon Setia Putra, said on Monday.

"We have positively identified it as TNT. However, the National Police have not found anything linking this incident to TNI. Anybody can use this explosive compound," Dudon said.

TNT is an explosive commonly used by the Indonesian Military (TNI).

Separately, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman said despite the fact that the bomb was deadly, the motive behind the explosion was merely to terrorize the people.

"It was an act of terrorism meant to cause chaos in the capital," Mulyono said.

He added that the police were collaborating with state railway company PT KAI in ensuring the safety of railroad tracks across the capital.

A National Police officer, however, had a slightly different take on the explosion.

"This was not an act meant solely to cause terror. The bomb was placed in the middle of a railroad bridge ... this was an obvious attempt to kill. The bombers were expecting a passenger train to pass," the officer, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post by phone on Monday.

The bomb exploded in the middle of a railroad bridge spanning Cisadane River in Serpong district, Tangerang, just a few seconds after a freight train passed. A section of the track was destroyed but no fatalities were reported.

"Had it been a passenger train, which is lighter than a freight train, the bomb would have exploded and thrown some of the train into the river," the source said.

"This time God was with us. The bombers were not expecting a freight train to pass."

The source said his officers were certain the bomb was meant for a passenger train because of the amount of TNT in the bomb.

"The amount was meant for a passenger train ... less than a kilogram. One car of a passenger train weighs about 10 tons ... so the amount was perfect to blast it," the source said.

"Each car of a freight train weighs about 30 tons ... and less than one kilogram of TNT did not do much to it. The bomb just destroyed the tracks but failed to derail the train into the river."

Meanwhile, Jakarta Police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Harry Montolalu said on Monday 14 people had been questioned in connection with the bombing.

"Two of these 14 will soon be named suspects. These two were sighted at the scene of the crime at about 2 a.m. on Saturday, some 30 minutes before the bombing. We are still questioning these two about what they were doing there at that time of night," Harry said. (ylt)