By Abu Hanifah
JAKARTA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian authorities said Thursday that the deadly suicide bombings in a Jakarta bus terminal on Wednesday were conducted by IS-affiliated group operating in the country.
An Indonesian police headquarters spokesperson Martinus Sitompul said the attacks in the bus terminal located in East Jakarta on Wednesday night was strongly suspected of carried out by members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which has stated their allegiance to IS.
"Content and components in the assembled bombs were entirely similar to the ones assembled by members of the IS-affiliated terror group which have been attempting attacks in several places," Sitompul said, referring to the assembled bombs detonated by suicidal bombers that killed themselves, three police and injured several other police and civilians on Wednesday night.
In the latest development police have managed to identify the attacks perpetrators in the Jakarta's bus terminal to be linked to a terrorist group actively operating in Poso, Central Sulawesi province.
The two perpetrators were identified as Solihin and Ichwan Nur Salam. The latter one was a Bandung resident.
After combing the scene and examining the evidence, police found out that the assembled bombs were not from high explosive ones. They contained nails and metal balls and were packed in pressure cookers and put in backpacks carried by the perpetrators.
Police found a receipt paper for the purchase of a pressure cooker from a minimarket in town of Padalarang, near Bandung, from the mangled body of a perpetrator.
Police said that the bomb packing and the contents were aimed at causing maximum explosion and giving severe impacts to the targets as it can shred flesh of people around the bomb blast.
A bomb with similar technique and contents were found in a failed attack in district of Cicendo, in West Java province's capital of Bandung in February this year.
Similar bombs were also found from police's ambushes against terrorist suspects in various locations with the largest one was in Bekasi, West Java late last year, which the police said capable to flatten buildings in radius of 300 meters.
JAD was identified as a terrorist group based in Indonesia. Formed in 2015, it constituted several extremist groups which stated their allegiance to IS.
Echoing police's analyses, a prominent terrorism analyst from International Crisis Group, Sidney Jones said on Thursday that the attack aimed at showing the radical group existence in Indonesia.
"It was to show its existence amid pressures received by IS throughout the world. There are some active IS-affiliated groups operating in Indonesia," Sydney said in an interview with a local TV station.
Meanwhile, former chief of government's anti-terror desk of the National Agency for Combating Terrorism, Ansyaad Mbai said the attack did not merely aimed at police. He added that it was actually aiming at the nation.
"The attack was intended to emerge insecurity among people as police are figured as the ones who assure the security for the people," he said in a TV interview on Thursday to comment on the fresh terror attack.
