Over 100 bomb threats received since Australian Embassy attack
Over 100 bomb threats received since Australian Embassy attack
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city police have received over 100 reports of bomb threats
since the Australian embassy bombing that killed 10 people last
September, an officer has said.
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said Sunday that the
police had received bomb threats to malls, office buildings and
hotels since September last year, but nothing had materialized so
far.
"We receive reports of bomb threats almost every day, and we
are kind of getting used to them," he told The Jakarta Post
when asked to comment on newspaper reports that Jamaah Islamiyah
(JI), which has been blamed for a series of terrorist attacks in
the country, was preparing a new wave of attacks here.
Christians across the country celebrated Easter this year
under heavy guard following warnings from several embassies that
bomb attacks might be launched by the terrorist group during the
holiday.
The Jakarta Police deployed more than 16,000 personnel, equal
to two-thirds of its total force, to provide security for the
nearly one million Christians who celebrated Easter in Jakarta's
more than 1,000 churches.
Earlier, the U.S. Embassy had issued a travel warning its
citizens to avoid the World Trade Center in Mangga Dua, North
Jakarta, from March 11 to 14.
Police combed the area quickly, but they found no signs of a
bomb. Meanwhile, shoppers stayed away from the center.
The British and Thai Embassies were forced to suspend their
operations following bomb threats they received via text messages
in February. The messages were apparently sent by a girl to
prevent her boyfriend, a police guard at the Thai embassy, from
going home in East Java.
"We are afraid that bomb threats are now being used to gain
certain advantages, including for personal, business or political
gain, but as police we must check every possibility," said
Tjiptono.
"We have checked all the places that have been threatened but
have found nothing to date. Our intelligent reports also have
nothing to say about a new threat. However, we will continue to
be alert and gather information," said Tjiptono, referring to a
recent report in Singapore's Straits Times daily that JI members
were now planning renewed bomb attacks in Jakarta.
JI is al-Qaedah's Southeast Asian regional terrorist group
and has been blamed for a string of terrorist attacks in the
region, including the Bali bombings on Oct. 12, 2002, and the JW
Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta on Aug. 5, 2003.
National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar has repeatedly warned
that JI could launch further bomb attacks across the country,
especially as both of its top bomb experts, Malaysians Azahari
bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top, are still at large.