By Ainur Rohmah
TUBAN, Indonesia (AA): Three policemen were killed Wednesday and 10 other people were injured when two suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up near a bus terminal in the capital city of Jakarta, authorities said.
“We must continue to keep calm (and) keep cool. Because … we Muslims are preparing to enter the month of Ramadan for fasting,” President Joko Widodo said in a statement.
National police spokesman, Inspector Gen. Setyo Wasisto, said the officers were on duty securing a parade.
“Five civilian and five policemen were also wounded in the attack,” Wasisto said, as quoted by a local online news site.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the identity of the attackers but Wasisto said “two bodies in scattered pieces are the two male attackers”.
Wasisto believed the attackers carried two bombs in backpacks.
National police spokesman Kommissioner Martinus Sitompul told a local television station authorities found body parts near bomb fragments that were categorized as middle-high explosives.
“We suspect this action was planned to attack the police,” Sitompul said, adding approximately 60 officers were on duty at the scene.
“It is alleged that the perpetrators are the ISIS group,” he said.
Aluminium, nails, buckshot and receipts for purchasing rice cookers were found at the scene of the bombing, Inspector General Setyo Wasisto told reporters Thursday afternoon.
The government condemned the bombing and urged the country to fight terrorism.
Indonesia is on high alert because of attacks by extremist groups and citizens returning from fighting in Syria.
Eight people were killed, including four attackers, in a terror attack in Jakarta in January 2016.
[Indonesia Map. By Creative Commons]