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Nation outraged over church attack
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Sectarian incident: Police personnel inspect the site of a Molotov cocktail attack in front of the Oikumene Christian Church in Sengkotek subdistrict, Samarinda, East Kalimantan on Sunday. (dok/Polda Kaltim)
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hen his 2-year-old daughter Intan Olivia asked to be allowed to join her cousin playing on the front porch of the Oikumene Church, Anggiat Marbun let her go without a giving it a second thought. It was the last time Anggiat would see his daughter alive.
Intan was pronounced dead at 3.05 a.m. on Monday from severe burns to her body caused by a home-made bomb thrown at the church compound by Juhanda, a former terrorism convict linked to the Islamic State (IS) movement.
“I was holding her close to me while I was praying in church before her cousin came to ask me to let her go outside and play with the other kids. As the prayer concluded, I said ‘amen’ and the bomb went off at the same time. All I could think of at that moment was my daughter,” said Anggiat.
“She is my first child and she is the only one I have,” Anggiat Marbun told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
“I rushed to rescue her [but to no avail],” Anggiat said, before calling for the interview to end.
Three other toddlers were seriously injured in the blast and as of Monday were still receiving intensive medical treatment at a hospital in Samarinda.
Many have reacted with outrage to the latest attack, with the hashtag #RIPIntan becoming a trending topic in the country on Monday on social media site Twitter.
A photo of Intan with a backpack strapped on her back has gone viral with thousands of Twitter users uploading a stylized photo of the 2-year-old on various social media platforms.
Many pictures based on the original photo with the addition of angelic wings have also been uploaded onto the internet.
Lawmaker Budiman Sudjatmiko of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) wrote from his Twitter handle @budimandjatmiko that “Intan is proof that in Indonesia, terrorism can kill people very close to us. They kill from a blind fanaticism.”
The country’s largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) meanwhile has condemned the terror attack, labelling it a true act of blasphemy.
NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj called on Muslims in the country to fight terrorist acts.
“What happened in Samarinda was an act of blasphemy of Islam. It is real blasphemy because the act is against the teaching of Islam. Such conduct shatters the image of Islam as a peaceful religion” Said told the Post.
The NU chairman said that any Muslims who launched a terror attack in the name of Islam were in fact not Muslims, because in principle Islam respected pluralism in society.
Representing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Culture and Education Minister Muhadjir Effendy flew to Samarinda to express condolences to Intan’s family.
“On behalf of the government and the President, we offer our deep condolences. We condemn the act, especially because the victims are toddlers, who are innocent.
Children only want to play in peace and receive love from those around them,” said Muhadjir, who could be seen holding back tears while speaking to Intan’s family.
In the wake of the attack, the National Police’s counterterrorism unit Densus 88 has questioned 15 witnesses and declared Juhanda a suspect on Monday.
At least five individuals have also been arrested as alleged accessories to the attack.
The suspect, Juhanda, who lives in a mosque in Samarinda, learned how to assemble a bomb in Aceh between 2009 and 2011, said the police.
National Police spokesman Ins. Gen. Boy Rafly said Juhanda learned the bomb-making technique in Aceh from the group of Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorist Dulmatin, who was killed in 2010.
“After the explosion, the team launched an investigation and searched a house in Lowojana Indah block VV No.13 where personnel seized a laptop, a cellphone and documents,” Boy said, adding that the National Police would step up their investigation to pursue more suspects in the case.
One day after the Samarinda attack, a group of people also reportedly threw a handmade bomb at a Buddhist monastery in Singkawang City in West Kalimantan on Monday. No victims were reported in the latest attack.
It is not yet known if the incidents in Samarinda and Singkawang are connected. The West Kalimantan Police are still investigating the attack.
Meanwhile, a Catholic church in Batu city in Malang also reportedly received a bomb threat on Monday. Police officers from Batu and Malang police offices were dispatched to comb the area after receiving a report of a bomb threat at the church.
