Explosion in Nganjuk linked to Laskar Jihad?

Explosion in Nganjuk linked to Laskar Jihad?

SURABAYA (JP): Police here were thinking on Wednesday that the
grenade that exploded on Tuesday in a van in Nganjuk, some 130
kilometers to the southwest belonged to the Yogyakarta-based
Laskar Jihad (Jihad Force) Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah.

In a related development, Yogyakarta Police went on Thursday
to Mulungan subdistrict in Sleman north of Yogyakarta and
searched the rented house of Rifzikka Helta, one of the
passengers who died in the blast. Two kilograms of gunpowder were
discovered during the search.

East Java Police Chief of Detectives Col. Suharto said on
Wednesday that apart from pieces of the Belgian-made grenade, a
home-made bomb, hundreds of 5.56 millimeter bullets for M-16
rifles, and a large number of other bullets of calibers ranging
from 6.3 mm to 9 mm, were in the Suzuki van when it exploded.

He said the lethal supplies could be leftover from weaponry
smuggled through the Tanjung Perak seaport and might have been
kept for a long time in Surabaya before being transported to
Yogyakarta.

Suharto said Nganjuk police also discovered several hand
written and printed documents, one of which contains a call for
people to join the jihad force and raise funds for the jihad
movement in Maluku. Partly burned account books from state bank
BNI and Bank Central Asia (BCA) belonging to Rifzikka were found
in the wreckage.

The second passenger killed in the blast has been identified
as Nasruddin and the injured passenger is Azmi Ishaq, 32, a
student of the Al Ikhlas Islamic Boarding School (Pesantren) in
Jember, East Java. Azmi is in critical condition at Nganjuk state
hospital. Another survivor, identified as Wiji, is still at
large.

The cause of the explosion remains a mystery, but Suharto is
assuming that overheating might have caused the blast.

The wreckage of the van was transported to Surabaya on
Wednesday for forensic investigation.

When asked if the four passengers were members of the Laskar
Jihad of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah Communication Forum, Suharto
said: "We found such documents. We are going to probe more
thoroughly."

But chief of the Jihad force communication forum Ayip
Syafruddin denied on Thursday that the four passengers were
members of the Muslim organization. He said the organization
could not afford to buy ammunition and weapons.

"We just don't have enough money. How could we buy those
things?" Ayip said.

A joint team comprising Yogyakarta and East Java police has
been formed to probe the incident.

Yogyakarta Police Chief of Detectives Lt. Col. Totok Sunyoto
told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that Helta's sister, Rifkizzia
Silvia, admitted that the car that exploded in Nganjuk was hers.
Silvia said Helta borrowed the car on Tuesday for unknown
purposes.

Local police chief Col. Dadang Sutrisno could not be reached
for confirmation.

Silvia said the burial of Helta has been rescheduled for
Saturday, pending completion of the autopsy.

Yogyakarta Governor Hamengku Buwono X met with Dadang on
Wednesday and said afterward he regretted the grenade blast which
involved residents from the province.

"They were heading for Yogyakarta when the explosion took
place. What on earth were they going to do with the hazardous
explosives here?"

The trauma of bomb blasts continued to plague North Sumatra on
Wednesday when residents of Pancurbatu district in Deliserdang,
near the provincial capital of Medan panicked after finding a box
they believed to be a bomb.

But Medan Police Chief Col. Hasyim Irianto said that the box,
weighing one kilogram, was a temperature measurement device
belonging to the local Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG)
office.

The Japanese-made device carried aloft by balloons shocked
residents when several balloons were heard to explode.
(39/44/jun/nur/sur)