All You Need to Know about Alam Sutera Mall 'Bomber'

Liputan6.com, Jakarta Alam Sutera mall customers were in profound shock in the afternoon of 28 October 2015 as they heard the sound of a loud banging allegedly originating from the men’s toilet located in the LG floor of that mall. Situated in Banten, Tangerang, this mall has previously experienced situation akin to this one with the first explosion reported to be on Thursday July 9 2015 and then followed by this one.

Such calamitous incident has caused for one employee to be seriously injured and immediately evacuated to nearest hospital for further medical treatment. It came as a big shock to everyone who was there as the explosion occurred during the time when the mall is particularly busy.

“Yes, the explosion occurred in the men’s room, we have one victim whose let leg, thigh and ankle severely wounded,” Head of Jakarta Regional Police, Inspector Tito Karnavian said as he inspected the site on the day.

Working Single-handedly (lonewolf):

Head of Jakarta Regional Police, Inspector General Tito Karnavian recently issued a statement confirming the fact that the bomber of Mall Alam Sutera in Tangerang Banten is not in any way related to a terrorist network and that there was only one perpetrator behind such explosion.

“No connection nor linkage detected between the suspect and any terrorist network like what we have speculated thus far,” Tito said during a press conference held earlier today the regional police headquarter, Thursday (29/10/2015).

Financially-motivated:

Since the perpetrator is not linked to any terrorist contingent detected within the archipelago state jurisdiction, it is very likely that his motive is also not ideological. Tito then makes further confirmation regarding this and reaffirms the fact that it was indeed not religiously nor ideologically motivated but financially provoked.

“His motive was not ideological but financial economical therefore causing havoc through extortion,” he continued.

Used TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide) for bomb- making:

Police collected evidence which have been yielded by Indonesian team of Automatic Fingerprint Identification System following successful raid of the perpetrator’s home in urban area of Banten, Serang.

After careful investigation within the perimeter, police found out that the materials used to make the bomb are easy to find and therefore easy to make but difficult to detect.

“It is easy to make but hard for us to detect,” Tito explained.

According to Tito, TATP can be easily ignited without having to be provoked by a single punch on the detonator.

Tito further explained how the bomb that perpetrator created falls under the category of ‘high explosives’.

“The chemical reaction moves faster through the material faster than the speed of sound above 1000 or 3000 and therefore can be safely assumed as high explosives,” he further explained.

He then continued explaining how the explosives used in Alam Sutera Mall is a couple of times much stronger in quality than the ones used in Ritz Carlton back in 2009 and Bali bombing in 2002. However, Tito shares how the quantity also matters in determining the rate of fatality and damage as the aftermath.

“The bombs used in Bali and Ritz Carlton were low explosives (black powder) but it was prepared in large quantity, whereas this case suggests the use of high explosives at small quantity,” Tito added.

Learns to make Bomb from the internet:

Tito believes that the perpetrator also falls under the category of ‘leaderless jihad’ or ‘lone wolf’ in the specification list of terrorism world. This means that he is working by himself, driven by personal parochial interest and motivation, learns methods of violence via Internet or others that cannot be easily detected.

“Suspect learns how to make bombs from the internet, learns about the target by himself and commit into the crime alone,” Tito shared.

 Involved in a series of attempt:

The perpetrator behind Alam Sutera Mall finally admits the fact that heas previously tried to ignite the explosives for three times.

“Investigating officers learn that suspect tried to ignite the explosives for three times with the first one failed to be detonated on July 6 2015 but successfully exploded 3 days later making it the second one and the third recent one on October 28,” Tito revealed.

The first failed attempt was on July 6 2015 where perpetrator tried to put explosives amidst insect repellent bottles section in the household aisle of Foodhall supermarket. The bomb fortunately did not explode at that time.

The second one is almost similar to the most recent one where the explosives were being placed inside men’s room in the LG floor of Alam Sutera mall and successfully exploded.

Socially- aloof:

Alam Sutera mall bomber is socially known to be introverted or socially aloof from the society around the place where he resides.

“He is my neighbor. He has been living here for over 1,5 years. He is pretty aloof, he doesn’t really open up to people nor feel the need to socialize with us. So we rarely hang out with him to know who or what he is interested in or what he is doing most of the time,” Suspect’s neighbor, Mariono said.

“He is working as an employee of a private company in Tangerang, lives with his wife and they have one children,” he added. (Akp/Ein)