Five questioned over railroad track bombing

JAKARTA (JP): Tangerang police detectives are intensively questioning five people in connection with a bomb attack on a railway track in Serpong district early on Saturday.

Deputy chief of Tangerang police precinct Comr. Ricky Wakanno identified the five witnesses as railway gate guard Endang, a Cisauk village resident Iwan, Cisauk railway station staffer Irawan, security guard D.E. Aswa, who happened to be in the area when the bomb blasted, and Waslimi, a resident who reported the incident to the police.

"These five are only witnesses, and this is preliminary questioning. We are still very much in the dark about the motive for the bombing. We are still investigating the other bombs found in the area," Ricky told reporters on Sunday.

He was referring to two other bombs police found near the area, about one kilometer from the Bumi Serpong Damai housing complex, or some 30 km west of Jakarta.

"We suspect that the bomb that exploded was placed between 11 p.m. and midnight on Friday. However the bomb detonator has not been found yet."

The bomb blasted in the middle of a railway bridge over the Cisadane river in Serpong district, just a few seconds after a freight train passed.

A section of the railway track was destroyed but no fatalities were reported.

The National Police's Gegana bomb squad arrived at the scene at about 7 a.m. on Sunday and defused the bombs. The type of the bombs remains unclear.

"The bomb exploded at 2:25 a.m., just after the freight train from Merak (Banten) en route to Surabaya (East Java) passed the area," Tangerang police chief Ast. Snr. Comr. Affan Rikwanto earlier was quoted by Antara as saying.

Spokesman for the state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) Zainal Abidin said the damaged section of the tracks had been repaired, with trains resuming operation at 10:55 a.m. on Saturday.

KAI technicians cut off the damaged 10-meter section of the track and changed it.

The repair work forced KAI to temporarily close the Jakarta- Merak route. At least 40 trains linking Jakarta to several cities in West Java such as Banten, Cilegon, Tangerang, Rangkasbitung and Merak, could not operate as a result.

KAI, he added, had yet to estimate the financial losses caused by the explosion. (ylt)