Sacred site devotees attacked 1 dead

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

A man was killed when an identified assailant ran amok and attacked five visitors with a machete at the sacred Mbah Cacag Ganti burial site in Sumedang regency, West Java, on Wednesday.

Karmin, 55, died at the scene and three others; Wahya, 50, Enok, 35 and Dawam, 55, were severely injured, while Diana, 36, sustained light injuries.

The motive of the attack remains unclear.

The victims were rushed to the Sumedang General Hospital as they suffered slash wounds to the head and legs during the sudden attack at Narimbang village in Conggeang subdistrict at around 1 a.m.

Sumedang Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Yoyok Subagyono revealed that the unidentified man used a machete and a block of wood in the attack.

"According to the victims, the assailant suddenly attacked them blindly in the middle of the night," Yoyok told journalists on Wednesday evening.

Most of the villagers only found about the incident the next morning as the site is quite far away from any residential area.

Diana, one of the survivors, managed to flee and cried for help with blood still streaming down her head.

As of Wednesday evening, the Sumedang police had questioned at least five witnesses, including the caretaker of the burial site.

"We're still looking for the perpetrator and trying to discern what his motives were. Tentatively, we suspect it was the result of a dispute among the caretakers fighting for control of the sacred place," Yoyok said.

There was also the possibility that the attack was the work of an insane person, he added.

The victims were all visitors from Jangga village in Losarang subdistrict, Indramayu regency. Mbah Cacag Ganti's gravesite is considered a sacred place that draws many guests from other towns.

Visitors mostly come on Thursday nights or on Islamic holidays to say prayers asking the spirit of the late Mbah Cacag Ganti to bestow upon them a better life, such as good fortune, finding wife or husband or a job promotion.