Six alleged criminals killed by mobs in a week

JAKARTA (JP): Six alleged criminals have been brutally killed by mobs, who decided to take the law into their own hands, at six separate locations in Jakarta, Tangerang, Bekasi and Bogor in the past seven days.

As in similar previous cases, the angry mobs, mostly made up of local residents who spotted the victims committing a crime, firstly severely beat the alleged criminals before one of them poured gasoline on the bodies of the dying men and set them on fire.

Police were alerted only after the victims were already dead. Since vigilantism became a popular trend in certain communities over the past two years, police have never named any suspects in such brutal mob actions which are probably inspired by the people's anger over the growing number of crimes in their neighborhoods.

The latest incident occurred on Thursday when local residents of South Petukangan in South Jakarta burned alive a 20-year-old man, who, together with a female friend, allegedly attempted to steal a motorcycle parked in the neighborhood.

Locals said that the man, later identified as Zulkarnain, 20, and his girlfriend, Rizki Aprilia, 18, were trying to remove the motorcycle from a house on Jl. Haji Nawi after pretending to enter the house as guests.

When the housekeeper was about to go upstairs to tell Ifan, 16, the son of her employer, the couple was seen by the housekeeper trying to steal the motorcycle, which belonged to Ifan's friend who was paying a visit at the time.

Housekeeper Kidah, who claimed to have been suspicious about the two guests, then ran outside and yelled, "Thief! Thief!"

Locals residents immediately surrounded the two strangers and severely beat Zulkarnain.

Not satisfied with this, the locals then stripped Zulkarnain naked and threw him into the gutter, sprayed him with gasoline and set him alight.

"People had to set fire to him four times before he died," a witness was quoted by Warta Kota as saying.

After killing Zulkarnain, the mob then turned its attention to Rizki but she was rescued by an elderly person who safely escorted her to a local residents's house.

Separately on Monday, two teenagers were beaten to death by a local mob on Jl. Sutono in Ciledug, Tangerang, after allegedly trying to rob a taxi driver in his cab.

According to the driver, Sihabuddin, the teenagers who were identified as Adianto, 16, and David, 19, stopped the taxi and asked him to take them to Tangerang. During the trip, the two pointed a machete at Sihabuddin and ordered him to hand over his money.

After intentionally crashing into an electricity pole at the side of the road, Sihabuddin screamed for help alerting local residents, who then ran after the two teenagers and beat them to death.

On Sunday, a local thug was pummeled to death with rocks, which were meant to be used as foundation material for a building, after stabbing a becak driver in the Pesona Anggrek housing complex in Bekasi.

The becak driver, Erwin, ran off and screamed for help after being stabbed by Ubaidillah, alias Codot. Locals then came to his assistance and lynched Codot.

Also on Sunday, Supriyatna, 41, was killed by an angry mob after he murdered his brother-in-law, Santosa, in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

After quarreling with Santosa, Supriyatna, who had been jailed several times, killed his sister's husband with a dagger.

Local residents who came to the scene after hearing the disturbance at the house, chased Supriyatna and beat him to death.

An angry mob also burned to death a suspect who was trying to steal a motorcycle in front of a security post in Gunung Geulis Resort, Sukaraja district, Bogor, on Sunday evening.

The alleged thief, Ismat, tried to rob ojek (motorcycle-taxi) driver Nana by rubbing balm into Nana's eyes, who then screamed out loudly of pain.

Hearing the screams, local residents approached them with blunt implements and then severely beat Ismat before dragging him to the security post in the Gunung Geulis Resort, dousing him with gasoline and setting him alight, a witness said.

Over the same period, police shot dead at least three alleged criminals.

On Wednesday, a reputed drug dealer, Yuda Anugrah, 19, was shot dead on Jl. Matraman Dalam I in Central Jakarta.

On the same day, an alleged motorcycle thief was killed by a gunshot from a police officer on Jl. Pademangan in North Jakarta.

On Saturday night, Nur Hasan, said to have been trying to rob a motorcycle from an ojek driver on Jl. Kapuk Raya, Cengkareng in West Jakarta, also died on the spot after an unidentified policeman riding a motorcycle heard the ojek driver's screams and shot the suspect in the right side of his chest.

The police report said that the officer warned Hasan to surrender, but the suspect resisted arrest. (08/21/41/asa/nvn)