The parcel found beside a luxurious house in the Kelayan Bubus Salam neighborhood in Banjarmasin Selatan subdistrict at 07:30 AM contained a suspicious fluid and powdered materials, a police officer said.
Banjarmasin city police chief Senior Commissioner Thayib Sik said police investigators were handling the case and attempting to identify and find those who had sent the package to 50-year-old Syaifullah`s house.
Thayib Sik said the disposed bomb was a low explosive which was similar to fire crackers or the devices fishermen used in blast fishing.
"The bomb was a low explosive and similar to fire crackers or the devices used in blast fishing," 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.(*)
R013/HAJM
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
