Man lost his life for sake of son

Man lost his life for sake of son

JAKARTA (JP): A food stall owner was stabbed to death by a
gang of eight people as he attempted to prevent them from mobbing
his son on Jl. Kawirata, South Jakarta, yesterday.

Mustara, 46, from Indramayu, West Java, was stabbed in the
right side of his stomach and later died from severe bleeding.

The commotion began after the man's son, Aditya, 18, warned
three passersby to stop throwing stones at temporary shelters,
for a nearby Duta Graha office project, after one of the stones
hit his father's stall.

Aditya said the three men started throwing stones about 9 p.m.
on Saturday while construction workers at the project were
sleeping. He was not aware of their motivation.

After being warned, the three men ran away but came back at
12:30 a.m. with five other people. Three members of the group
carried sickles, sharp weapons locally known as clurit.

Mustara greeted the angry mob, saying that his son just wanted
to warn them.

"I don't think we have had any problems before so please don't
take it personally," Aditya quoted his father as saying. "My son
was only trying to remind your friends."

The leader of the gang, however, said that his friends were
offended by the way Aditya had warned them.

Aditya said they even threatened to burn the stall and the
nearby temporary shelters if he did not apologize for his earlier
warning.

During the conversation, one of the gang members moved forward
and stabbed Mustara in the stomach without saying a word, he
said.

Seeing his father fall down, Aditya -- the oldest son of four
children -- said that he grabbed an iron rod to scare the gang
away.

There were actually a lot of project workers at the scene but
none of them dared to help, he said.

"The stabbing was seen by all the members of my family because
we stayed at the shop that night," he said. Mustara's family live
in Menteng Atas, South Jakarta.

Many passing taxies refused to transport Aditya, with blood
all over his hands, to a nearby police sub-precinct to report the
murder, he said.

One hour later, a project worker took him by motorbike to
Setiabudi police sub-precinct.

"My father was still in a critical condition when I left him
but he died when I returned from the police office," he said.

Mustara's body was taken to the Cipto Mangunkusumo general
hospital's morgue for an official post-mortem examination.
Mustara died from severe bleeding, according to doctors.

Aditya said his father's body would be buried in Indramayu
today.

Meanwhile, Sgt. Maj. Bambang Wiryadi from the Setiabudi police
sub-precinct said police had arrested six of the eight gang
members. These men had only admitted to being involved in the
stone throwing.

Police are still searching for the other two members of the
group who have already been identified. (04)