Four injured in fresh Poso blast
Four injured in fresh Poso blast
Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Poso
The peace was again shattered in the Central Sulawesi city of
Poso on Saturday night when a homemade bomb exploded injuring
four people.
The bomb went off outside a house on Jl. Mongonsidi, Lawanga
subdistrict, Poso city, at 11:15 p.m., causing panic among
members of the public, but they nevertheless managed to assist
the victims, taking the injured to Poso General Hospital for
treatment.
The victims -- Sinta, 44; Selvi, 28; Ical, 19; and Fudin, 24
-- suffered only slight injuries caused by flying fragments and
were released from the hospital soon after receiving treatment.
The Central Sulawesi and Poso Police's bomb squad, led by Poso
Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. M. Soleh Hidayat, arrived soon after
the explosion and immediately sealed off the area.
The motive behind the bombing is still unclear, Soleh said,
but said it bore all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack. Several
witnessed have been questioned by the police but no arrests have
been made so far.
"I can't provide detailed information right now but I can say
that it looks like a terror attack was perpetrated on Saturday
night," he said.
The bomb exploded just moments after revelers finished
performing the controversial Dero folk dance at a birthday party
outside a resident's house located opposite the residence of Poso
regency secretary Awad Alamri.
One victim, Fudin, said the alarm was first raised by another
victim, Selvi, who saw sparks coming out of a package. Fudin
attempted to sound the warning but the bomb exploded before
people could flee.
The Dero dance is controversial in the region. Regularly
performed in the past during local ceremonies like weddings and
birthday parties, as well as harvest ceremonies, it was never
performed in Poso between 1998 and late 2004 following its
prohibition by several hard-line Muslim groups.
The groups banned the dance, claiming it was haram (against
Islamic teachings), as it was performed by men and women holding
hands. In traditional Islam, only men and women who are muhrim
(related and who cannot get married), may hold hands.
Saturday's explosion was the first in Poso since newly elected
Poso regent Piet Inkiriwang and deputy regent Abdul Muthalib were
officially installed two weeks ago.
Poso has been a flash point of sectarian clashes between
Muslims and Christians that left over 1,000 people dead in two
years of bloodshed up to 2001.
Up to August of this year, at least four bombs -- two of them
in Poso city -- had exploded, with the bombings at Tentena market
in May this year being the deadliest in Indonesia since the Bali
bombings of 2002 that killed 202 people.
In May, two bombs ripped through the crowded market in the
predominantly Christian area of Tentena, killing 21 civilians and
injuring 70 others.