The Jakarta Post, August 14, 2007
More bomb parts found in Pasuruan
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Pasuruan
Police on Monday found even more bomb ingredients at the site of Saturday's deadly
explosion in Pasuruan, East Java, discovering 29.2 kg of TNT and 500 hand-made
detonators.
Only a day before, police found 10 kg of TNT, meaning as of Monday a total of 39.2 kg
of explosives had been found in the ruins of house of Muhammad Ilham, the man
police suspect of being the main culprit in the explosion.
Police have so far found 1,434 detonators.
Police also said they found fragments of human remains under the ruins of Ilham's
house which they believed belonged to Marsiti, Ilham's younger sister.
Police are intensifying their investigations into the origins of the explosives found at
the site.
"We are still examining where the TNT originated from. Our men are still working at
the blast scene and pursuing the suspects," Greater Malang Police Chief Sr. Comr.
Safrizal Ahyar told reporters.
Police said they were unable to identify the TNT supplier since one of their main
suspects, Muhammad Nadzir, 30, was still at large.
Ahyar said police were still investigating the explosion, which occurred at 2:02 p.m.
on Aug. 11 and killed three people. Based on a string of blast cases from 2005 to
2006, police said they believed the bomb makers were making the explosives to use
in illegal fishing.
Police have so far questioned 22 people, including Ilham, who is still in detention at
Pasuruan police station.
Ahyar said Malang Police believed fishermen in Pasuruan had long used TNT to blast
schools of fish.
"If we find out later that people are still using fish bombs, we will arrest them," Ahyar
said.
According to the chief of the East Java Police Forensic Lab, Sr. Comr. Bambang
Wahyu Supraptu, police have yet to finish examining the entire blast scene.
"We still have to ... ascertain whether the bomb had been assembled earlier or not,"
Bambang said.
Bambang explained that the bombs were made from a combination of materials that
needed to be combined in order to become effective.
TNT, usually used by the military, has been known to be used in Pasuruan since at
least 2005. Previously, the dominant explosive used by fishermen was potassium
chlorate, calcium chlorate and calcium nitrate mixed with other ingredients. Those
materials could easily explode when shaken or exposed to fire, high temperatures or
pressure.
The three bodies found at the blast scene have been identified as Marsiti (Ilham's
younger sister), Yusuf (Ilham's younger brother) and Mansyur (Ilham's child). Their
remains have already been buried.
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