Cops nab 15 in latest gang brawl in Pekojan

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Police say 15 members of the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) have been arrested for allegedly destroying a security post in Pekojan, West Jakarta, that they thought belonged to rival gang Pemuda Pancasilia (PP).

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Wednesday evening that officers were still interrogating the 15 FBR members.

“None of them have been named suspects in the case. We’re still trying to find out who did what in the attack, which one of the 15 detainees brought the weapons and which ones wrecked the post,” Rikwanto told reporters.

Separately, West Jakarta Police general criminal investigations unit chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Hengky Haryadi said that detectives had confiscated a host of weapons when breaking up the violence, including 71 arrows, 45 motorbikes, 15 machetes, five slingshots, four crossbows and two sickles.

The incident on Wednesday was the latest in a series of tit-for-tat attacks between mass organizations that started on early Monday morning, when FBR members reportedly removed banners belonging to the PP in Tambora,
West Jakarta.

Two food stalls operated by FBR members in Tambora were then attacked by 40 unidentified men on motorbikes around 11 p.m. on Tuesday. The assailants shattered display windows and destroyed FBR flags, the police said.

“Angered by this assault, FBR members then raided nearby areas in search of PP members, believing that they were behind the attack on the food stalls,” Rikwanto said.

“It was during this raid that they passed by the security post in Pekojan and, believing that PP members might be inside the post, wrecked the area,” he added.

The FBR and the PP along with the Pemuda Panca Marga (PPM), the Betawi People’s Forum (Forkabi) and Badan Pembina Provinsi Keluarga Banten (BPPKB), signed a truce brokered by the police on June 30.

The truce lasted for a few before the FBR and PP again brawled in Cengkareng Timur, West Jakarta, on July 3.