Five questioned over railroad track bombing
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)