Bomb explodes at Indonesian Hindu Temple

[Guest guest]

indicjournalists, "Rajeev Srinivasan"

<rajeev.srinivasan wrote:

 

mar 10th

 

more from the religion of peace.

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

C

 

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=&art_id=qw1141963201424R131

 

Poso, Indonesia - A homemade bomb exploded early on

Friday outside a Hindu temple on an Indonesian island

that has been plagued by religious violence, wounding

a man who was guarding the compound, police said.

 

The blast on the outskirts of Poso, a coastal town on

Sulawesi island, was caused by a low-intensity bomb

that was placed in the home of the temple's guard,

said Poso deputy police chief, Major Andreas Wayan.

 

The device detonated when the 40-year-old man, Nengah

Sugiarta, opened the door, causing the roof and wooden

walls to collapse, he said.

 

"Whoever did this wanted to create panic and spread

terror here in Poso," Wayan said, adding that police

found black powder, nails, shrapnel and a battery at

the scene indicating the bomb was homemade.

 

Hundreds of onlookers gathered around the temple after

the blast, which seriously wounded Sugiarta, riddling

his legs and waist with shrapnel and wood. The Hindu

man, who has been the temple's guard for 15 years, was

taken to a nearby hospital.

 

About 3 000 security personnel have been deployed to

safeguard Poso since last year people dead - saw a

resurgence of violence.

 

Most of the victims in the latest attacks, including

bombings and beheadings, have been Christians.

 

Wayan said it was too early to say who was behind

Friday's attack - the first to target Hindus in Poso,

a city 1 600km north-east of Jakarta.

 

Though nearly 90 percent of Indonesia's 210 million

people are Muslim, Poso's population has an almost

equal number of Christians and there are also a small

number of Hindus, most of whom arrived from the island

of Bali in the last three decades.

 

The government moved thousands of Hindus to Sulawesi

and other islands after the 1963 eruption of the Agung

volcano, one of the world's largest of the 20th

century, devastated dozens of villages on the

mountainside in eastern Bali. - Sapa-AP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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