Police pledge to protect churches
Police pledge to protect churches
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police personnel nationwide pledged on Tuesday that they would
beef up security at churches during Christmas and New Year's Eve
celebrations.
The Police bomb squad will comb churches in search of bombs
before Christmas sermons were held, and some churches would be
equipped with metal detectors.
Every church leader in South Sulawesi will be tightly guarded
by police officers, everywhere they go.
In addition, the South Sulawesi provincial police department
officers will also deploy four to 10 officers to guard each
church in the province, according to chief of South Sulawesi
provincial police Insp. Gen. Saleh Saaf.
South Sulawesi province is home to 683 churches.
In Bandung, police officers said they would intensify security
at 36 churches in the city.
Bandung police chief Sr. Comr. Sulistyono added that there
would be metal detectors at some of the larger churches in the
city, while Bandung police would deploy some 7,200 officers at
all 36 churches, in addition to the bomb squad officers, who
would be on high alert.
The tight security measures are not only stepped up at
churches but also in shopping malls and other public places in
Bandung.
In Medan, some 2,600 police personnel were ready to be
deployed at 529 churches in the city during Christmas
celebrations. On top of that, the Medan city government has also
instructed local subdistrict and district heads to help the
police guard churches in their respective areas, said Medan city
spokesman, Ramli.
In Sidoarjo city, East Java, a senior police officer called on
churchgoers not to bring large packages that might raise
suspicions.
Adj. Sr. Comr. Ronald F. Sompie, the chief of the Sidoarjo
police, urged churchgoers to bring only Bibles during Christmas
celebrations, in order to make it easy for police to check them.
The tight security measures at churches have been standard
procedure nationwide since 2001, following a simultaneous,
multipronged bomb attack on churches in several cities across the
country a year earlier, which killed at least 19 people. --
Antara