By NINIEK KARMINI
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police seized explosive powder and writings from the home of a 17-year-old suspect in an attack on a high school mosque that injured dozens of students, and are investigating his possible links to hate groups, authorities said Saturday.
The suspect was among 54 injured in Friday’s explosion in Jakarta and was still recovering in a hospital, National Police Chief Listyo Sigit said after visiting him and the victims. The suspect was one of two students who underwent surgery for injuries from the explosions.
“The suspect’s condition has improved, and we hope this will make it easier for us to interrogate him after he recovers,” Sigit stated.
He added that police currently only have one suspect. “However, we will not stop there. We will continue to investigate whether other individuals or groups were involved.”
At least two loud explosions occurred around noon at the mosque, just as the Friday sermon began, at SMAN 72, a state secondary school inside a marina residential complex, in the Kelapa Gading neighborhood of north Jakarta. This caused worshipers to flee in panic as gray smoke filled the mosque.
The type of explosives used is unknown at this time but the explosions originated near the mosque’s loudspeaker, said Jakarta police chief Asep Edi Suheri.
Most of the victims who were near the loudspeaker lost their hearing from the explosions and about 29 students remained hospitalized 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 investigating reports in local media that the suspect was a 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 at the University of Indonesia, said the suspect was frequently harassed and may have sought revenge by imitating the actions of international extremists he encountered online.
“It 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 introverted and unsociable teenager who lived with his father and older sister in a house used to process food for several restaurants.
“He is a quiet person who often stayed in his room and played with his cell phone and laptop,” said Danny Rumondor, a neighbor, adding that the boy’s parents had divorced more than seven years ago.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor using a generative artificial intelligence tool.