uring a massive strike of public minivan drivers in Bandung, West Java, on Thursday, an angry mob attacked a vehicle it suspected of being a taxi used by the ride-hailing application Uber.
The Toyota Avanza car was attacked at the crossroads of Jl. BKR and Jl. Sriwijaya. The police named one man identified as Ujang Permana a suspect involved in the attack.
“The car was carrying four passengers when several people attacked it, suspecting it was an Uber taxi. They damaged the car with their hands and by using stones,” Bandung Police chief Sr. Comr. Hendro Pandowo said.
The incident began when Eggy Muhammad Juniardi, 29, was driving his car and several unidentified men suddenly approached him and asked him to stop.
It was suspected that the attackers were among the protesters who were on their way to the Gedung Sate heritage building for a rally to ask the Bandung administration to take tough measures to push for the revocation of Transportation Ministerial Regulation No. 32/2016 concerning app-based transportation.
One of the passengers recorded the attack on a video that showed perpetrators hitting both the windows and doors of the car. They forced all the passengers to leave the car. “Get out of the car! Get out of the car!” they shouted.
A female passenger cried and screamed hysterically, asking for help. The sound of a baby crying was also heard in the video footage. A male passenger was heard asking the perpetrators to stop the attack. “Help! Help! Help! There is a baby here. What have we done?” he pleaded in the three-minute video.
“Look, there’s a baby here. How brutal all those public minivan drivers are. Pak Ridwan Kamil, please investigate this,” he added, referring to the Bandung mayor. (hol/ebf)
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