Suspect in Indonesia mosque bombing was inspired by past mass killings, say police

JAKARTA – The student suspected of detonating blasts that injured dozens of people at a mosque in Indonesia’s capital last week was motivated by vengeance and inspired by attacks carried out by white supremacists and neo-Nazis, the police said on Nov 11.

The blasts,

which hit a mosque at a school complex

in Jakarta’s Kelapa Gading area during Friday prayers, left 96 people injured.

The police said seven homemade explosives were found in and around the mosque, some of them inside Coca-Cola cans.

Some bombs were triggered remotely, while others used fuses, and three failed to explode, they added.

The police said they also found a toy firearm at the scene with inscriptions, one of which read “vengeance”.

Last week, the police said the suspect was a 17-year-old student at a nearby school.

The Jakarta police chief, Inspector-General Asep Edi Suheri, did not name the suspect on Nov 11, referring to him only as a “child facing the law”.

The suspect was a “lone wolf” and not part of any terror network.

The alleged perpetrator was a lone wolf motivated by vengeance and loneliness, said Superintendent Mayndra Eka Wardhana, an official with Indonesian police’s anti-terror unit.

He said the suspect was inspired by attacks carried out by neo-Nazi and white supremacist figures and had joined a social media community that glorified grisly violence. But he did not appear to subscribe to a specific ideology or be part of any militant network.

The police cited the perpetrators of shootings such as the 2019 attack at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the 1999

shootings at Columbine High School

in the US as possible influences.

“That inspired the alleged perpetrator,” Supt Mayndra said. “He felt there was no place to share his complaints, neither with his family nor school.”

The suspect, who sustained a head injury at the time of the explosions, is recovering after undergoing surgery. REUTERS