Man arrested for role in Pamulang bombing
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
A man identified as Ucok was arrested last Wednesday by city police for his alleged role in a bombing outside the house of Muslim cleric Abu Jibril on June 8, police said on Friday.
City police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said that the man, arrested at an undisclosed place in Jakarta, was now undergoing intensive interrogation at city police headquarters.
"There is a strong indication that the man was involved in the bombing. We have not declared him as a suspect yet but we have a right to detain him for 7 days," he said.
Firman added that police needed to match Ucok's information with explanations from witnesses and evidence at hand before proceeding to the next stage of investigations.
A small bomb exploded in the front yard of a house rented by preacher Mohammad Iqbal, 47, better known as Abu Jibril, in Pamulang, Tangerang, which borders the capital.
No one was injured in the blast, which created a 20-centimeter diameter crater six centimeters deep.
Witnesses have said that they saw two men on a motorcycle, and testified that one of them threw a bag into the front yard of Jibril's house.
Police have so far questioned over 10 people, including Abu Jibril, security guards Sutedjo, Edy, and Sana and officials at the nearby mosque.
Speculation has been rife that the bombing was an attempt to link Jibril, who was once tried on terrorism charges, to a bombing case, after he received only a light sentence for an immigration offense.
Following his deportation to Indonesia from Malaysia, Jibril was taken into police custody as he was suspected of being a senior member of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) network, which is accused of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2003 JW Marriott hotel blast, and last year's blast outside the Australian embassy in Kuningan, South Jakarta.
However, the Central Jakarta Court only sentenced him to five and half months's jail for passport fraud last year.
A police source close to the investigation said that Ucok was the man who threw the bomb into the front yard.
He added that police were now looking for the driver of the motorcycle, identified as Fatman.
The source said that Fatman was believed to be an active member of the military.
Firman, however, stuck to his earlier statement that the bombing was done by opportunist group aiming at terrorizing people while acknowledging that the police were still investigating the group's real motive.
He added that the Pamulang bombing had a connection with a bomb found at Tanjung Barat Railway Station in South Jakarta.
City police bomb squad dismantled the bomb on Tuesday evening. The bomb was placed inside a shopping bag at left in the parking lot of the busy railway station.