Police search for three men over train bombing

Police search for three men over train bombing

JAKARTA (JP): The City Police have distributed rough sketches
of three men in connection with the weekend bombing of a railway
track in the Tangerang district of Serpong.

City Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bahrul Alam said on
Tuesday that the three men were observed at the scene of the
explosion by at least four of 18 witnesses questioned over the
case.

"Before and after the explosion, the four witnesses said they
saw these men around the railway bridge. The unidentified men
were carrying green backpacks similar to those commonly used by
ABRI (military). The witnesses had a pretty good look at the
faces of these men," Anton told reporters at city police
headquarters.

Anton identified the four witnesses as local residents Dadan
Sumarsa, Wosli Miguan alias Iwan, Marsin bin Arisan Talib and
train engineer Ade Komarudin.

"Each of the strange men was wearing a green scout-like cap
with the symbol of a star in the middle of it. The large men,
each sporting a crew cut, were also wearing green jackets and
carrying torches... all were aged between 30 and 35 years old."

The bomb exploded in the middle of a railway bridge over the
Cisadane river, a few seconds after a freight train carrying
steel passed. A section of the track was destroyed but no
fatality resulted from the attack.

Weighing some 870 tons, the train had 15 wagons.

Anton said that one of the witnesses, Dadan, was saying a
prayer at a local mosque located near the bridge, when he heard
the blast and saw "two unidentified men" walking away in a hurry.

Both men, he said, were wearing green caps with star symbols.

Wosli said that he was relieving himself near the railway
bridge, when he saw two unidentified men wearing green caps.

"Wosli said that they were stocky, carrying backpacks and
torches, and that they had shone their torches in his face,"
Anton said.

Marsin, Anton added, was the only witness who claimed to see
three men heading towards the railway bridge before the freight
train passed.

"Marsin himself was carrying a torch and he shone it in the
faces of these three men. He told us that the three men were
wearing caps, with the star symbol, carrying backpacks and
torches, and wearing green jackets," Anton said.

"Marsin saw them walking to the middle of the bridge, and then
leaving. A freight train passed and then the explosion occurred."

Meanwhile, engineer Ade Komarudin told the police that the
blast occurred under the 12th wagon of the train.

"Ade said that the train slowed down as a result of the
explosion but nothing much happened to it. After the explosion,
he spotted two unidentified men near the bridge," Anton said.

Police found out on Monday the bomb contained nearly one
kilogram of trinitrotoluene (TNT), an explosive commonly used by
the Indonesian Military.

Separately, City Police Chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman said
on Tuesday that his personnel were probing a possible link
between the bombing and Monday's train accident.

"We are not dismissing the possibility of sabotage in Monday's
incident," Mulyono said, without elaborating.

At least 20 electric train passengers were injured after
jumping down from the train when a pantograph got caught in wires
and broke. The commuter train was heading from Tanah Abang in
Central Jakarta to Bogor.

Spokesman for state railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia
(KAI) Zainal Abidin ruled out the sabotage hypothesis. He said on
Tuesday the pantograph -- the trolley on the electric train that
connects it to the electricity cables -- came off because the
train was overcrowded.

"Due to the overcrowdedness, the train started to slant, the
pantograph gave away, and the electricity cables broke away as
well, just as the train reached the Poltangan area, in Pasar
Minggu, South Jakarta," Zainal told reporters on Tuesday.

"Today, everything has returned to normal and all other trains
are able to move along that route." (ylt)