T

he Jakarta administration said it had learned its lesson and in the future would avoid operating Transjakarta buses through areas gripped by unrest caused by brawls, rallies and the like following the hijacking of three buses on Monday night.

Transjakarta Management Authority (BLU) chief Muhammad Akbar said on Tuesday that in the future the management would re-direct buses whenever there were security concerns in areas along their routes.

“This policy will include all buses on Transjakarta’s 11 corridors and the feeder buses,” Akbar said.

On Monday, a group of people hijacked three Transjakarta feeder buses on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central Jakarta at around 8 p.m. The people were believed to be associated with students rallying near the State Palace in the same area.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of students protested near the palace against the government’s plan to increase fuel prices in April.

Two bus drivers managed to escape, while the other one was forced to follow the other two hijacked buses to Cawang, East Jakarta, where the hijackers joined another rally near the Indonesian Christian University (UKI).

The police retrieved the buses after midnight. There was no reported injury in the incident.

Akbar said the buses sustained no major damage, but their safety equipment and fire extinguishers were gone.

“Not much was lost or damaged, but I regret their actions. They vandalized and disrupted a public service, disregarding the needs of Jakarta’s citizens,” he said.

Transjakarta currently operates 524 buses and is planning to add 178 new buses this year. Up to 350,000 people use the service each day.

The hijacked buses were plying feeder Route 2 in Central Jakarta, which covers Jatibaru, Abdul Muis, Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat and Jl. Fachruddin and connects with Transjakarta Corridor 1 (Blok M–Kota) and Corridor 2 (Pulo Gadung–Harmoni).

Akbar said that the BLU would coordinate with the Jakarta Police over security concerns on Transjakarta routes. “We leave the investigation into the hijacking to the police,” he said.

Separately, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said the police would cooperate with the rectorate of UKI to learn whether any of the university’s students had taken part in the hijacking.

“We regret that the demonstration ended with such an act,” he told reporters at police headquarters.

He added that the police officers standing guard at the demonstration had returned to headquarters before the hijacking took place, and, hence, could not stop it. “We’ll be more vigilant in the future to avoid similar incidents from happening,” Rikwanto said.