Indonesian police are investigating whether the weekend bombing of a karaoke bar on Sulawesi island that killed four people was the result of a personal feud.
| Oh, probably. I remember one time, I got into it with Hotdog Frank, arguing over whether I'd paid for my fries. Why, I took out an entire city block in that little dispute... |
General Dai Bachtiar said it was too soon to link the Saturday night blast in southern Sulawesi to the October 12, 2002, Bali bombings and last year’s attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. "The modus operandi and the type of bomb are different," he told reporters in Jakarta.
| "But since they all targeted happy, smiling people, it was probably Islamists..." |
Parts of Sulawesi island were wracked by violence between Muslims and Christians in 1999 and 2000 that killed 1,000 people. However, the south of the island has remained largely peaceful. "We are analyzing whether it was an act of personal revenge," said Bachtiar. "But whatever the cause, it was an act of terrorism." Previous blasts at Indonesian nightclubs, where prostitution and drug dealing are rife, have been blamed on disputes between gangsters that control the establishments. Police have questioned 15 witnesses to the blast at a popular bar on the outskirts of Palopo town. Officers say the bomb — described as a low-explosive device — was placed under a table in the bar. On Monday, a team of forensic experts from Jakarta were sifting through the debris at the site of the bombing, deputy local police chief Major Wisnu Widarto told The Associated Press from the scene. He said officers were searching for two men who were seen leaving the bar on a motorbike shortly before the blast, but declined to say they were suspects. |