Shepherd alerts Bekasi Police of grenade find

JAKARTA (JP): The vigilance of a young shepherd who was tending his buffaloes saved a lot of lives from being lost to possible grenade explosions, Bekasi Police chief said on Monday.

Adj. High Comr. Idrus Gissang said that it was sheer luck when a passing buffalo belonging to Taufik Dimira, 15, kicked wires connected to the pins of three grenades, located in the middle of and under the railway tracks between the Lemah Abang and the Kedung Gede railway stations.

"But it was the young herder's vigilance, that he traced the source of the wires, saw the grenades, alerted a train security post in Lemah Abang, and immediately reported the finding," Idrus told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Taufik is a local resident.

Idrus said that had it not been for Taufik, the three grenades would have exploded, damaged the tracks and any train passing would have found itself heading for a crash.

"One of Taufik's grazing buffaloes was kicking some wires and Taufik saw this. He traced the end of the wires and saw them attached to two grenades, in between the railway tracks. Upon further inspection, he found another one under the track."

Idrus added that police were still in the dark about those involved in the placing of the three live grenades.

"Whoever placed the grenades was very smart. He placed them in such a position... you can only find houses 200 meters west and east of the grenade location, and 200 meters north and south of the location, nothing can be found," Idrus said.

"One of the grenades was made in Korea. The person used a 20- meter wire, which was brand new, and attached this to the pins of the three grenades. Just pull the wires and the grenades would have exploded. The suspect or suspects must have taken a good 10 minutes to fix all this."

Idrus said two of the grenades were placed between the tracks, and one under the track, in the Karangsari village of Kedung Waringin, some 49.5 kilometers east of here.

Trains heading for or leaving Jakarta were delayed for 3.5 hours after the Lemah Abang police subprecinct received the information.

"We forbade any train from passing the area. The National Police bomb squad arrived, worked on the grenades, and defused them safely," Idrus said.

Bomb explosions rocked church compounds in the capital and other major cities in Indonesia on Christmas Eve, killing at least 19 people and injuring over a hundred people.

Aside from the Christmas Eve bombings which killed four in Jakarta, bomb blast incidents in 2000 occurred once each in February, March and April, thrice in August and thrice in September.

Altogether, 17 people died in the bomb blasts in the capital throughout last year.

Bomb threats were received here prior to the New Year festivities, but all of them proved to be hoaxes. (ylt)