TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Suspicious bag left at ITC Depok not bomb: Police
Change Size
Police show the contents of a bag that caused panic among visitors at the ITC Depok shopping mall in West Java on Monday. (Courtesy of/National Police)
A
fter a thorough investigation by the Gegana bomb-disposal squad, police finally said that an unclaimed black bag left by a man on a sidewalk in front of the ITC Depok mall on Monday morning did not contain the previously suspected explosives.
“It was not a bomb,” National Police spokesperson Martinus Sitompul said on Monday via a text message as he attached a picture that showed several clothes, a cellphone and a water bottle that police had taken from the bag.
Police are now examining the cell phone and a USB data storage device to discover the owner.
The bag, which was spotted and reported to police by Adi Saputra Tambunan, 30, had been left by two unidentified men in front of the shopping mall.
“This is a good thing. We appreciated this kind of response,” Martinus told The Jakarta Post.
The head of a special team that deal with gangs, the Jaguar team of the Depok Police in West Java, First Insp. Winam Agus, said he hoped that people would not be afraid to report suspicious things they see around them in the future.
“We can be stronger to fight terrorism if we are together” Winam said.
Jl. Margonda Raya, which was temporarily closed during the investigation, has been reopened to public traffic.
The incident happened only three days days after the stabbing of two police officers at a mosque near the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta and a month after bomb explosion on May 24 at Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta. (hol)
