The Jakarta Post, 1/8/2006 1:07:02 PM
Police release suspect held for Palu market blast
JAKARTA 8 (AFP): Indonesian police said Sunday they had released one suspect
detained over a New Year's Eve bombing in restive Central Sulawesi province that
killed seven people, but were still questioning a second man.
Police released the first suspect, 37-year-old Mulyono, on Saturday, one week after
the blast at a market stall that sold pork in the religiously divided provincial capital of
Palu, said police spokesman Rais Adam.
"Based on our anti-terror law, we have to release him as we did not find sufficient
evidence to charge him after seven days of questioning. However, there is still another
suspect undergoing questioning," Adam told AFP.
The homemade bomb, packed with the head of a mortar round and ball bearings, also
injured at least 54 mostly Christian shoppers who had thronged the stall to buy pork,
which is forbidden for Muslims.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-populated nation, but Christians and Muslims
live in roughly equal numbers in parts of Sulawesi and in the Maluku.
The blast was the latest violence to rock the restive province. In November, about
1,000 extra troops and police were sent to Central Sulawesi after violence between
the two religious groups escalated.
Widespread religious violence rocked the area in 2000 and 2001, killing more than
1,000 people.
?A government-brokered truce was put in place in December 2001 but intermittent
bombings, shootings and other attacks targeting Christians have continued. (***)
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