Police cast net for four bombing suspects

Police cast net for four bombing suspects

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Police are tracking down four primary
suspects in connection with four different bomb blasts here last
year.

Jakarta Police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Harry Montolalu
said on Friday that police were looking into the possibility that
at least two of the four bombing suspects were connected with
more than one of the blasts.

Harry identified the four separate cases as: the bomb
explosion at the Attorney General's Office (AGO) building on July
5; the powerful bomb blast in front of the residence of
Philippine Ambassador, Leonides T. Caday, in Central Jakarta, on
Aug. 1; the bombing at the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building
on Sept. 13; and the blast at Omni Batavia Hotel in West Jakarta
on Nov. 17.

"The suspect in the Philippine bomb case, Said Adnan, is also
believed to be involved in the AGO bombing case... there is a
strong link between the two cases," Harry announced to reporters
on Friday, following a formal meeting of police detectives across
the nation at the National Police Headquarters.

"The police also have evidence that the bomb blasts in Jakarta
are linked to some of the bombing cases in Medan, West Nusa
Tenggara and Palu... this has been found out via calls made from
mobile phones of suspects... ," Harry said.

"This could lead to a big ring of bombers operating a
network."

Harry added that in the case of the Omni Batavia blast, police
have identified a suspect who was a hotel guest on the day of the
blast, but had not been registered in the hotel's registry
logbook.

"We find this very suspicious... the hotel had very few
guests, less than 15 on that day. So how come this hotel guest
was not listed in the logbook?" Harry said.

The blasts at the Attorney General's Office building and the
Omni Batavia Hotel claimed no lives, unlike the powerful blast in
front of the residence of Philippine Ambassador, Leonides T.
Caday, in Central Jakarta, which killed two people.

The bombing at the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building
claimed at least 10 lives.

Following Friday's meeting of police detectives, National
Police deputy chief of detectives, Brig. Gen. Ail Sudirman, said
that police had forwarded over 60 dossiers of suspects involved
in numerous bombing cases across the nation in the past 18
months, including the Christmas Eve nationwide bombings which
killed at least 19 people.

Ail said that the police have found some interesting evidence
in these cases as well as the recent case concerning grenades
found in Depok.

As reported earlier, Depok Police arrested five men for the
alleged possession of hand grenades and hundreds of bullets
seized from different locations across Greater Jakarta on Tuesday
and Wednesday.

National Police Chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro said on Friday
that he had instructed the Greater Jakarta Police to conduct
routine "sweeps and raids" for firearms and explosives in certain
areas of Greater Jakarta suspected of sheltering firearms and
explosives dealers.

In connection with the Depok incident, city military commander
Maj. Gen. Bibit Waluyo dismissed on Friday all allegations that
military officers were involved in providing bullets or grenades
to the explosive-dealing suspects.

Bibit said that not a single grenade or bullet had gone
missing from the city military command. (ylt)