Indonesian police investigate ties between a mosque attack suspect and hate groups

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police seized explosive powder and writings from the home of a 17-year-suspect in an attack on a mosque at a high school that injured scores of students, and are investigating his possible links to hate groups, officials said Saturday.

The suspect was among the 54 injured in Friday’s blast in Jakarta and was still recovering at a hospital, said National Police Chief Listyo Sigit after visiting him and the victims. The suspect was one of two students having surgery for injuries from the blasts.

“The suspect’s condition has improved, and hopefully this will make it easier for us to question him after he recovers,” said Sigit, adding that police currently only have one suspect. “However, we will not stop here. We will continue to investigate whether other individuals or groups were involved.”

At least two loud explosions occurred around midday at the mosque, just as the Friday sermon started, at SMAN 72, a state high school within a navy’s residential complex, in Jakarta’s northern Kelapa Gading neighborhood. It prompted worshipers to flee in panic as gray smoke filled the mosque.

The type of explosives used was not immediately known but the blasts originated near the mosque’s loudspeaker, said Jakarta Police Chief Asep Edi Suheri.

Most of the victims standing close to the loudspeaker lost hearing from the blasts and about 29 students remained hospitalized on Saturday for burns and other injuries.

Police said Friday they recovered a toy submachine gun belonging to the suspect and inscribed with what appeared to be white supremacist slogans and the names of two neo-Nazis convicted of deadly attacks in Canada and Italy.

Police ruled out a terrorist attack, and 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.

Ridlwan Habib, an intelligence and terrorism analyst from the University of Indonesia, said that the suspect was frequently bullied and may have sought to retaliate by imitating the actions of international extremists he found from intense internet searches.

“This is the first time in Indonesia that an attack has occurred inside a school carried out by a 17-year-old student and the target was his own friends,” he said.

The suspect’s neighbors described him as an introvert and unsociable teenager who lived with his father and older sister in a house that is used to process food for several restaurants.

“He’s a quiet person who often stayed in his room and played with his cellphone and laptop,” said Danny Rumondor, a neighbor, adding that the boy’s parents had divorced more than seven years ago.