Two more alleged criminals mobbed to death

JAKARTA (JP): The number of suspected criminals killed by people on the streets here continues to soar with two more alleged crooks killed by mobs on Friday in two separate incidents in West Jakarta.

On Thursday, two men were burned to death by mobs, one in Bogor for allegedly stealing a bull and one in East Jakarta suspected of being a pickpocket at an inter-city bus terminal.

The first tragedy on Friday took place at around 3 a.m. when angry residents of Jl. Mangga Besar in Taman Sari ran amok and killed Nardi, who they said had attempted to take away a motorcycle from the neighborhood.

"Witnesses said that Nardi was carrying a sword in the front yard of a house when somebody yelled and called him a thief," a police report said.

Several locals who were awake that morning to eat their morning meal before fasting then chased Nardi who, according to the report, had been wanted by police for a previous crime.

Nardi then had tried to run away and managed to strike a man on the leg with his sword when the residents tried to catch him.

But the locals finally succeeded in catching him and immediately beat him up.

Nardi suffered severe injuries and died while being taken to the nearby Husada hospital.

Separately in Kalideres, a 20-year-old man named Aris was mobbed to death after allegedly trying to break into an apartment belonging to an Army personnel living at the Army's Strategic Reserved Command (Kostrad) apartment building.

Aris suffered serious injuries, mainly to the back and the head.(jaw)