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JAKARTA: One of the two suicide bombers who attacked an Indonesian cathedral on Sunday (March 28) belonged to a pro-Islamic State extremist group blamed for other church bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines, the police chief said. Listyo Sigit Prabowo.
“The perpetrator was part of the JAD group that carried out the attack in Jolo, Philippines,” the police chief said, referring to the extremist network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah.
The bomb used in Sunday’s attack was a pressure cooker bomb, Prabowo said.
Prabowo also said that four others linked to the group have been arrested in Bima, a town on the island of Sumbawa in Central Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province.
READ: About 20 injured after suspected suicide bombing at Indonesian church
Sunday morning’s attack killed two suspected terrorists and injured about 20 people, including some church staff and worshipers who were attending mass at the time of the attack.
A police officer stands guard near the site of an explosion in front of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, on March 28, 2021 (Photo: AP / Masyudi S. Firmansyah)
The country’s top security minister also confirmed late Sunday that the attack was a suicide bombing, the first official confirmation by authorities.
“There was a suicide bombing in the cathedral church of Makassar,” Coordinating Minister of Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD, told reporters in the capital Jakarta. “The two (bombers) died.”
The minister said he ordered the police and army to increase security at places of worship across the country.
He also urged people to be patient as authorities work to uncover the network behind the attack.
A video obtained by The Associated Press showed body parts strewn near a burning motorcycle outside the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province.
Indonesian Red Cross personnel carry a body bag after an explosion outside a Catholic church in Makassar, South Sulawesi province, Indonesia, on March 28, 2021 (Photo: Reuters / Stringer).
THE FIRST LOT OF CHURCH ATTENDEES CAME OUT OF THE CHURCH
The Rev. Wilhelmus Tulak, a priest of the church, said he had just finished celebrating Palm Sunday Mass when a loud blow shocked his congregation. He said the explosion occurred around 10:30 am when a first group of parishioners was leaving the church and another group was entering.
He said church security guards suspected two men on a motorcycle wanted to enter the building and when they went to confront them, one of the men detonated his explosives.
Later, police said both attackers were killed instantly and that evidence gathered at the scene indicated that one of the two was a woman.
Prabowo did not give names or say how they were identified. It was unclear if the couple was a married couple.
Police officers pass the scene of an explosion at the door of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, on March 28, 2021 (Photo: AP / Yusuf Wahil).
At the end of the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, which inaugurated the Holy Week ceremonies in the Vatican, Pope Francis invited people to pray for the victims of violence. He cited in particular “those of the attack that took place this morning in Indonesia, in front of the Makassar Cathedral.”
Churches have been attacked in the past by extremists in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation and home to several religious minorities, including Christians, Buddhists and Hindus.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he “strongly condemned this act of terror.”
“Terrorism is a crime against humanity,” he said.
“I call on everyone to fight terrorism and radicalism, which go against religious values.”
Amnesty International said the attack showed “total disregard” for human rights.
JAD is an extremist group responsible for a series of attacks, including suicide bombings on churches in Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya, in 2018.
A dozen people were killed in that attack after a family of suicide bombers who rode motorcycles blew themselves up in churches during Sunday services in Surabaya.
The family, including two daughters aged nine and 12, and another family of five, who carried out a suicide bombing at a police headquarters, belonged to the same Koran study group. They were also linked to JAD, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
An Indonesian militant and his wife, members of JAD, were also blamed for two explosions that razed a Catholic church on the Muslim-majority island of Jolo in the Philippines in 2019, killing worshipers at Sunday mass and security forces.
Two other militants linked to that attack were shot dead by Indonesian security forces earlier this year.
