JAKARTA. Suicide bombers that killed three police officers at a Transjakarta bus shelter in the Kampung Melayu bus terminal in East Jakarta targeted police, a terrorism expert said on Thursday.
“I suspect that the bombers intentionally targeted the police,” Ridlwan Habib of the University of Indonesia told Kompas TV.
Ridlwan said the officers were resting in the shelter after securing a parade of residents welcoming the Ramadhan fasting month.
He suspected that the bombers were members of similar terrorist networks that attacked police officers in separate incidents in Surakarta, Central Java, on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, and in Tangerang, Banten.
The bombers had likely planned the attack weeks earlier, he said, and carried out the attack after the Jakarta gubernatorial election, when the police had decreased security in the capital as the elections had run safe and smooth.
