Seven questioned over Riau blast

Fadli and Abdul Khalik, Batam/Jakarta

Police investigators have questioned seven people about the bomb blast that rocked the Riau provincial capital of Pekanbaru early on Tuesday, a senior police officer said on Wednesday.

Riau Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. S. Pandiangan said all of those questioned were Pekanbaru residents and that they were currently being treated as witnesses.

The spokesman declined to spell out the details of the questioning, simply saying: "We are still looking into the case."

In Jakarta, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said police investigators were focusing their attention on one of the people injured in the bombing, who was thought to have information on the blast.

The man, who was badly injured, was found by police after the explosion some 30 meters from the spot of the blast. The police chief said there were some questions about whether the man, identified as Irwanto, had some connection to the bombing.

"Substances discovered on the clothes being worn by Irwanto were similar to the substances used in high-explosive bombs. Besides, what was he doing at the scene of the bombing before dawn on Tuesday?" Da'i said.

Da'i, however, said it would be sometime before police were able to question the man, who remains in critical condition at the hospital.

As of Wednesday, police investigators were still sifting through evidence at the blast site. They are looking through debris on Jl. Arengka in Pekanbaru for clues that could lead them to the perpetrators.

The bombing early on Tuesday in front of a shop-house killed two people, who have been identified as Sipon, a maid, and Sriyati, a shop assistant. Four other people were injured: shop owner Along, his wife Yuliana, their son Stephen and Irwanto.

The bombing happened just hours before trial of a man charged in the 2000 bombing of a Riau church on Christmas Eve opened at a local district court.

Police have said they were looking into a possible connection between the bombing and the trial.

The police also announced on Wednesday that they had discovered residue of the high explosive RDX nitrate at the blast site.

"The blast was the biggest to hit the city," Riau Police chief of detectives Insp. Gen. Syafrizal Ahiyar said as quoted by AP.

RDX nitrate was used in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people. A similar substance was also used in the JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta last year, which left 13 people dead, including the bomber. Those two bombings were allegedly the work of the regional terrorist network Jamaah Islamiyah.