Jakarta, March 16: A Police officer has lost an arm and three others have been injured after a bomb meant for a high-ranking member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s party exploded at an office in East Jakarta.
The bomb, which was detonated about 8.10pm (AEDT) today was in a package addressed to Ulil Abshar Abdalla, a moderate Muslim scholar and the founder of Jaringan Islam Liberal (Liberal Islam Network).
Jakarta police chief Sutarman said the explosion occurred before the bomb squad arrived when another officer already on the scene attempted to open the package.
“It had been localised for bomb squad. The bomb squad hadn’t arrived, when the head of detectives for East Jakarta District Police came,” Sutarman said.
“He did something with it, the bomb exploded.”
One police officer was in a critical condition in hospital after losing his arm in the blast.
Two other police officers and a security officer were also injured and taken to hospital.
The package containing the bomb was wrapped in brown paper, and also contained a book and a letter addressed to Abdalla.
However, it appears the person or persons that sent the bomb were off target.
The building houses the offices of the Institute for Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI), a group which Abdalla has not worked with for some years.
The Muslim scholar founded Jaringan Islam Liberal while with ISAI, as part of efforts to counter the growing influence and activism of militant and radical Islam in Indonesia.
It describes itself as “a community which is studying and bringing forth a discourse on Islamic vision that is tolerant, open and supportive for the strengthening of Indonesian democratisation”.
——–Agencies