Police detain two students for city bus hijacking

JAKARTA (JP): East Jakarta police detectives on Sunday detained two of some 50 students, who hijacked a city bus on Saturday and stole passengers' valuables.

Head of the precinct's detectives unit, Capt. Agus Irianto, said that the two students -- Muhammad Husni Hidayat and Nikolas bin Nizar -- were found to be illegally carrying sharp weapons, namely a sickle and a samurai sword.

"Both of them could be charged on the basis of Article 2 of the Emergency Law," Agus said.

The law stipulates that those found guilty in the court face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Husni and Nikolas along with dozens of their fellow students from a senior technical school in Lapangan Banteng area, central Jakarta, hijacked city bus P02 plying the Kampung Rambutan - Kota route on Saturday afternoon, shortly after the announcement of the final examination results for last grade students.

"Actually, many of the students were carrying sharp weapons. But we could not arrest them due to a lack of evidence, since they managed to immediately throw away their weapons before our men could detain them," officer Agus said.

Therefore, the police could only detain two of the students and released the others to their parents.

The incident started when 10 senior students came to their school to see whether or not they passed the national examination. Students nationwide actually no longer need to visit their schools to receive the test results because their schools usually mail the results to each of the students.

Knowing that they passed the exam, the 10 students then tempted their juniors to join them for an unclear mission.

On Jl. Gunung Sahari, the crowd of some 50 students then stopped the P2 bus and jumped onboard.

"Some of them sat on the seats, while others hung from the doors," a passenger recalled.

Few seconds later, the teenagers then shouted, pointed out their sharp weapons, ranging from samurai swords to cutters, and then grabbed the passengers' belongings one by one.

Passenger M. Zein, who had just bought a brand new PlayStation for his children, tried to defend his goods but was forced by the students to hand it over to them.

"Shut up, or die!" one of the students was quoted by Zein as saying.

Suspicious about the crowd of students inside the bus, Central Jakarta police officers attempted to stop the bus as it passed in front of their headquarters on Jl. Kramat Raya.

Since they were being threatened by the young hijackers, bus driver Sudarmo, 43, and assistant Edi Purwanto, 30, refused to meet the officers' call and sped past, heading south.

Upset, the officers then contacted their counterparts in the East Jakarta police precinct, which then placed two trucks on Jl. Matraman Raya to blockade the hijacked bus.

According to deputy head of the detectives unit, First Lt. Ferdy Sambo, the students abruptly threw their weapons onto the street shortly after the bus was surrounded by police officers.

No passengers were wounded.

Few days earlier, police rounded up 48 students from SMK PGRI 26 senior high school who were loitering in the Jembatan Tinggi area in West Jakarta in a measure to prevent them from brawling with students from other schools.

Their suspicions were somewhat confirmed when they discovered three sickles and four wooden sticks, weapons commonly used in interschool brawls in the capital, being carried by the group.

The police also seized marijuana from a student and low grade heroin from another.

The students were taken to the Jakarta Police Headquarters where they were subjected to physical exercise before being released.

The two students carrying drugs were held for further questioning. (06/07/bsr)