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)