BANDUNG, Indonesia, Dec 7 (Reuters) – A suspected Islamist militant angered by Indonesia’s new criminal code killed another person and wounded at least 10 others in a suicide bomb attack on a police station in the city of Bandung on Wednesday. .
Indonesian police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo told a news conference that the suicide bomber was believed to be linked to the Islamic State-inspired group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) and had previously been arrested on terrorism charges.
The attacker, identified as Agus Sujatno, was released in late 2021 and investigators found dozens of documents at the crime scene challenging the country’s controversial new criminal code, the police chief said.
“We found dozens of documents protesting the newly approved criminal code.
While the new criminal code, ratified by parliament on Tuesday, contains provisions based on Sharia, analysts say Islamist hardliners could be angered by other provisions that could be used to combat the propagation of extremist ideologies.
West Java police chief Suntana previously told Metro TV that authorities found a blue motorcycle at the scene and believe it was used by the attacker.
On the bike was a note with a message condemning the new criminal code said Suntan as “infidel crop”.
Todd Elliott, a senior security analyst at Concord Consulting in Jakarta, said the attack was planned some time ago and the country’s new laws were ideologically rejected.
[1/13] Indonesian Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (INAFIS) officers investigate after an explosion at a district police station in what authorities say was a suspected kamikaze attack in Bandung, West Java province, Indonesia, Dec. 7, 2022. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
“Despite all the attention on some sharia-based provisions in the criminal code and this is an indication of the spread of conservative Islam in Indonesia, there are changes in the criminal code that hardliners will not support,” he said. .
“Including the banning of any ideology that is against the state ideology, Pancasila, and this will also include extremist ideology.”
Video footage from the scene of the attack on Wednesday showed smoke rising from the damaged police station along with debris.
Hanes, a 21-year-old street vendor who witnessed the explosion, told Reuters: “Suddenly I heard an explosion… I saw several police officers coming out of the station and unable to walk properly.”
Islamist militants have carried out attacks in the world’s largest Muslim country in recent years, including on churches, police stations and places where foreigners are concentrated.
JAD members were responsible for a series of suicide church bombings in Surabaya in 2018. The attacks were carried out by three families who put their young children in kamikaze vests and killed at least 30 people.
In 2021, a pair of JAD newlyweds carried out a suicide bombing at a church in Makassar, killing only themselves.
Indonesia introduced tough new anti-terror law after JAD-linked suicide bombings to crack down on militants.
Analysts say the now largely fragmented group has been weakened by a wave of arrests by the counterterrorism agency in recent years.
Reporting by Ananda Teresia, Fransiska Nangoy, Stefanno Sulaiman, Yuddy Cahya Budiman and Kate Lamb; Written by Kate Lamb; Edited by Ed Davies, Gerry Doyle and Simon Cameron-Moore
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