Malaysian embassy on alert after threat
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Jakarta Police increased security around the Malaysian Embassy on Jl. Rasuna Said in South Jakarta after an unidentified caller threatened late on Monday to blow up the embassy.
Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said on Tuesday addition officers had been deployed to guard the embassy.
He said officers from the Jakarta Police antiterror unit were working to identify the caller based on telephone records.
The police said they would seek assistance from communications experts and mobile phone system providers to trace the caller.
A security guard at the embassy, Agus Setiawan, 33, received a telephone call from a an unidentified man at 9 p.m. on Monday. The caller said he had placed bombs in the embassy and that they were set to go off at 1 a.m.
The man reportedly called the embassy five times and made the same threat before guards contacted the police.
At about 10 p.m., the bomb squad arrived to search the embassy. The embassy was declared safe at about 12 a.m.
Ketut said police were attempting to discover a motive for the threat against the Malaysian Embassy.
"The caller probably just wanted to take advantage of our current focus on bomb threats. However, we will investigate the hoax because we do not want to take the risk that the caller might actually have been a member of a terrorist group," he said.
Indonesia has been on full alert since the Oct. 1 suicide bombings that destroyed two cafes and a restaurant in Jimbaran and Kuta in Bali, killing 22 people and injuring more than 130.
Several days before the Idul Fitri holiday, the police's special antiterror unit, Detachment 88, received information indicating the possibility of bombing during the holiday.
Authorities said recently they had stepped up security after Omar al-Farouq, an alleged lieutenant to Osama bin Laden and leader of the al-Qaeda terror network in Southeast Asia region, escaped from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan in July, and after the Australian government warned of more bombings in Indonesia before the end of the year.
According to the police, bomb threats are made daily via telephone calls and text messages (SMS) against office buildings, malls and hotels in Jakarta.
Police, however, have only been able to trace one SMS sender so far this year.
In response, the government announced recently it would require all mobile phone owners with prepaid accounts to register, and for all sellers of mobile phone numbers to record the identities of buyers.