JAKARTA: More than 50 people were injured in multiple explosions that occurred during Friday prayers at a mosque in Jakarta, police said, with a student identified as the suspected perpetrator. 

The incident took place inside the complex of SMAN 72, a state-funded high school in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. 

“We have caught the suspected perpetrator, and we are investigating his identity,” National Police Chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo told reporters. 

At least 54 people were rushed to local hospitals with a range of minor to serious injuries, including burns. Some have been discharged, but two people were still undergoing surgery, Listyo said, one of whom is the alleged suspect. 

At least two loud blasts were heard when the incident occurred around midday, just as a sermon was starting at the high school mosque, according to witnesses interviewed by local television stations. Students and others ran out in panic as gray smoke filled the mosque. 

The school complex is located on largely navy-owned land in a crowded area of North Jakarta, home to many military personnel and retired officers. 

“We are still looking into the motive. We found a weapon, a fake weapon with writing on it … We will explain everything once we have gathered all the information, evidence from the ground, and the results of our investigation,” Listyo said. 

Listyo said investigators are still collecting information to determine a motive.

Most of the victims suffered burns and injuries from flying glass. The type of explosives used was not immediately known but the blasts came from near the mosque’s loudspeaker, according to Jakarta Police Chief Asep Edi Suheri.
He warned against speculation that the incident was a terror attack before the police investigation is completed.

“Let the authorities work first,” Suheri said. “We will convey whatever the results are to the public.”

Police confirmed they were looking into reports in local media that the suspect was a grade 12 student who had been bullied and wanted revenge by carrying out what was intended to be a suicide attack.
“We are still investigating the possibility that bullying was a factor that motivated the suspect to carry out the attack,” Jakarta Police’s spokesperson Budi Hermanto told reporters late Friday.

Hermanto said the capital is safe and security is under control, and he urged people not to be anxious.

Videos circulating on social media showed dozens of students in school uniform running in panic across the school’s basketball court, some covering their ears with their hands, apparently to protect themselves from the blasts.

Some of the injured were carried on stretchers to waiting cars. 

Black-clad police officers carrying assault rifles were seen guarding the iron gates of the compound on Friday afternoon, as emergency and armored police vehicles were on standby on the street outside. 

Shocked relatives gathered at centers set up at Yarsi and Cempaka Putih hospitals to seek information about their loved ones. Parents told television stations their children had wounds from being hit in the head, feet and hands by sharp nails and pieces of exploding objects.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, was struck by a major militant attack in 2002 when Al-Qaeda staged bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
In subsequent years, there have been mostly smaller, less deadly strikes that have targeted the government, police and anti-terrorism forces, as well as those considered infidels by militant groups.
Friday’s attack was not the first mosque attack. In 2011, a Muslim militant blew himself up in a mosque at a police compound in Cirebon packed with officers during Friday prayers, injuring 30 people.
In December 2022, a Muslim militant and convicted bombmaker who was released from prison the previous year blew himself up at a police station in West Java, killing an officer and wounding 11 people.
Since 2023, the Southeast Asian nation has experienced what authorities call a “zero attack phenomenon.” Security experts say the government is responsible for the stable situation.

(With AP)