Jakarta (AsiaNews) Indonesian police identified four suspects for the June 9 bomb attack against St Joseph Catholic church in Yogyakarta (central Java). They arrested the four men in late July but released their names only now. They are Ina Yudha, 24, Agung Widodo, 26, Adita Agus, 18, and Aljupri Isnangun.
The attackers are believed to have thrown a Molotov cocktail against the church destroying its entrance gate and fence. No one was injured in the incident.
Sigit Sudharmanto, police chief in Yogyakarta's Sleman sub-district where the men were arrested said the "four lived not too far from the church. Two of them are known as experts for making [. . .] rudimentary bombs." Police found various illegal weapons in the men's homes.
Chief Sudharmanto declined to provide any additional information and stopped short of saying what the men's motives for the attack might have been. "Just wait! Our detectives still need time to find explanations for the attack against a religious building. It is something that locals feel strongly about," he said.
Last year a chapel in Sayegan village, also in Sleman, was the target of a similar attack. Chief Sudharmanto refused to comment on possible connections between the two violent episodes.
Although over 80 per cent of Indonesia's 212 million people are Muslim, there are 27 million Christians who represent about 13 per cent of the total population, 6 million are Catholics.
Indonesia's constitution enshrines freedom of religion. (MH)