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Jakarta Post

Police investigate possible IS involvement in Medan church attack

Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post)
Medan
Sun, August 28, 2016

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Police investigate possible IS involvement in Medan church attack Police Mobile Brigade personnel guard St. Yosep Catholic Church on Jl. Dr Mansyur in Medan, North Sumatra, on Sunday after a foiled bombing and murder attempt. (Antara Photo/Irsan Mulyadi)

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orth Sumatra Police confirmed on Sunday that the suspect in the attack St. Yosep Catholic Church in Medan did not act alone and may have had connections to the Islamic State (IS) movement.

Sr. Comr. Nur Fallah, the North Sumatra Police director of general crime, said the suspect told the police during questioning that he was ordered to carry the bomb and blow it up in the church on Jl. Dr Mansyur.

“The police are hunting his associates,” Nur said Sunday.

Some of the churchgoers said they saw two people run from the church when the bomb failed to explode properly. Members of the congregation said they did not really pay attention to the two people because they were busy trying to save themselves while others were trying to prevent the suspect, identified as Ivan Armadi Hasugian, 18, from attempting to kill the priest, Albert Pandiangan.

Medan Police take a picture of parts of a suspected homemade bomb from a suspected Islamic State militant in St Yosep Church in Medan on Sunday Aug. 28.(Courtesy of Medan Police/-)

Nur said they were also investigating the involvement of IS in the terror attack against the church following the discovery of a document with an IS symbol in the suspect’s wallet.

On July 26, two attackers slit the throat of an 85-year-old priest, Jacques Hamel, during Mass in a church in Rouen in western France. The IS group claimed responsibility for the attack, in which the priest, two nuns and an elderly couple were held hostage before the two men slashed the priest's throat and seriously wounded the other man. (evi)

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