Bogor, West Java (ANTARA News) - People in Bogor city were gripped by fear of bomb explosions following the discovery of a parcel suspected of containing a bomb near the city`s grand mosque on Monday.

A bomb squad of the police`s Mobile Brigade that was called to the scene found suspicious cables inside the package.

One of the bomb squad members evacuated the parcel and sterilized the area within a radius of 100 meters from where the parcel was found to anticipate unwanted eventualities.

Chief of the Bogor city police`s detective unit Adjunct Commissioner Arif Gunawan said the bomb squad found suspicious cables inside the parcel after taking pictures of it and scanning the suspicious object .

The package was found by a street vendor named Engkus Wisesa, 54, under a big tree near the mosque at 10.00 AM local time but he failed to chase and catch the man in a yellow jacket who had put it there.

He said an unknown young man put that suspicious package under the tree and then quickly ran away . "He ran away fast and we failed to catch him. It seemed that he had been awaited by a friend," he said.

A series of bomb threats had rocked parts of Indonesia over the past two weeks.

A Jakarta metropolitan police bomb squad had even detonated a suspicious package that a local resident named Iskandar had received last Saturday (March 19).

Earlier in the day, the Jakarta metropolitan police also disposed of a package received by Jakarta-based Muhammadiyah University Rector Masyitoh Chusnan.

On March 15, four packages containing books with bombs planted in them were sent to Ulil Abshar Abdalla, activist of the Islam Liberal Network, Goris Mere, the chief of the National Anti-Narcotics Agency, Yapto Soeryosumarno, the chief of the Pancasila Youth organization, and Ahmad Dhani, a musician.

Then, a plastic bag containing a bomb was also found in Cibubur, Bogor district.

A Bank Central Asia (BCA) building at Serpong Road, Banten Province, also received a bomb threat on March 18. On March 19, a church at Titi Papan Road in Medan, North Sumatran province, also received a bomb threat.

In response to these bomb threats, House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie urged the police to immediately unveil the perpetrators of the recent parcel bomb scare so that it would not turn into a political issue.

Indonesia has been fighting terrorist cells in the country since the 2002 Bali bombings that claimed 202 lives, including 88 Australian holiday makers.

Two years before the terrorists attacked the resort island of Bali, Indonesia was rocked by the Christmas eve bombings in 2000.

The latest bombing incident occurred in July 2009. At that time, two suicide bombers simultaneously attacked two luxurious hotels in South Jakarta, killing several people.
(L.KR-LR*S022/R013/HAJM/R013)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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