Special task force to work on bombing cases: Bimantoro

JAKARTA (JP): The National Police has established a special task force to investigate the recent unsolved bombing cases throughout the country and is expected to begin work next Monday, acting National Police chief Comr. Gen. Suroyo Bimantoro said on Friday.

"The bomb blasts in Medan, the bomb found in Bengkulu and the recent blast at the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building, cannot be handled by the concerning provincial police headquarters alone," Bimantoro told reporters at the National Police Headquarters.

"There has to be a special team to probe bombing cases. The team will start from the crime scene and work their way from there. This is the priority of the task force."

The seven-member special task force, headed by National Police chief of detectives Insp. Gen. Ansad Mbai, will include Bandung city Police chief Sr. Supt. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo, Yogyakarta city Police chief Sr. Supt. Gorries Mere, and Sr. Supt. Jacky Uli, former chief of police's anti-bomb squad, the Gegana.

Both chiefs have served as former Jakarta police chief of detectives and have succeeded in solving a number of high priority cases. Alex and his team of mobile detectives (Resmob), for instance, were responsible for the arrest of the Istiqlal Mosque bomber in April last year.

The year has witnessed five blasts in the capital so far, the JSX blast proving to be the most fatal with a death toll of at least 11.

A source at the National Police central forensic laboratory (Puslabfor) has confirmed that the bomb which exploded in the JSX building was a C4 type, a high velocity military plastic explosive.

"We found out on Monday afternoon that it was a C4... it's just sadistic. Later a bomb detector (Ionscan) of the latest design, which was brought into Puslabfor showed the bomb contained at least 70 percent RDX," the officer said.

Several executives of security company PT Professtama Teknik Cemerlang (PTC) -- which imports high-tech security devices -- were seen on Monday bringing in the Barringer's Ionscan Model 400B which can detect and identify trace amounts of explosives or drugs.

The Ionscan, which was put to test on Tuesday using samples collected from the JSX explosion and the bomb blast in front of the Philippine Ambassador Leonides T. Caday's residence on Aug. 1, indicated that the bombs were of the C4 type, the officer said.

In a related development, a bomb scare hit the National Police Headquarters on Jl. Trunojoyo No. 3 in South Jakarta on Friday morning, a senior officer at the National Police information division said.

"The bomb threat was made before the Friday Muslim prayers... at about 11 a.m.," Sr. Supt. Salef Saaf told reporters on Friday.

"I also heard that calls were made to private TV stations RCTI and Indosiar to inform them that a bomb would explode in the Trunojoyo area, strongly hinting that the target was Mabes Polri (the National Police Headquarters). They never explicitly said Mabes Polri, though."

Visitors to the headquarters on Friday afternoon had their belongings checked by internal affairs officers.

When asked the reason, an officer who requested for anonymity said that "Mabes Polri received a bomb threat". The threat turned out to be a hoax. However, all units within the National Police have been alerted. (ylt)