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INDONESIA BOMBERS SUSPECTED TO BE LINKED TO SUICIDE CHURCH ATTACK IN SULU
- By The Financial District
- Mar 29, 2021
- 2 min read
An approaching motorcycle exploded outside a Roman Catholic church in central Indonesia's Sulawesi Island in a suspected suicide bombing on Sunday, leaving at least 20 people injured, police said, Kyodo News reported on March 29, 2021.
The two attackers are believed to be members of a militant network that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group
Among the initially reported deaths were the perpetrators, national police spokesman Argo Yuwono said, adding that the injured were mostly churchgoers and church security guards. The security affairs minister later verified that the two people "suspected to be the suicide bombers" have died.
Rev. Wilhelmus Tulak, a priest at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Makassar, said he had just finished celebrating Palm Sunday Mass when a loud bang shocked his congregation. He said the blast went off at about 10:30 a.m. as a batch of churchgoers were walking out of the church and another group was entering.
As per his recollection, security guards at the church were apparently already suspicious of two people on a motorcycle who wanted to enter the building. When security went to confront two, one of the men detonated the explosives.
National Police Chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo told reporters when he visited the crime scene late Sunday that the two attackers are believed to have been members of the militant group Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and was responsible for deadly suicide bombings on Indonesian churches in 2018.
He said one of the attackers was believed to have links to a church bombing in the Philippines.
According to Prabowo, police believe that one of Sunday’s attackers, identified only as "L," was connected to a 2019 suicide attack that killed 23 people at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral in the Philippine province of Sulu.
In a statement, President Joko Widodo denounced the explosion as a "terrorist act." He asked the public to go ahead and attend worship services, saying the state will guarantee their safety. Argo said security will be intensified in churches across the country as the holy week for Christians that ends during the Easter celebrations next Sunday has started.
