Fifteen years have passed since tragedy struck Bali, when bombings took the lives of 202 victims in Kuta.
Hundreds of people gathered at the Bali Bombing Memorial at busy Jl. Legian on Thursday to pay their respects to the victims of the Oct. 12, 2005 attack. Some laid out flowers, while many visitors to Ground Zero could be seen reflecting and praying.
Meanwhile, under invitation of the British Police, Bali Police Chief. Insp. Gen. Petrus Reihard Golose marked the day in the UK at the Bali Bombings Memorial in Central London, where the lives of the 202 victims are commemorated, including 23 British victims (of the 202 people killed, 88 were Australian, 38 were Indonesian, and the rest were of 20 other various nationalities).
“It is an honor for us to be invited by the British Police to commemorate the Bali Bombings, which fell on October 12, 2002,” Golose said, as quoted by VIVA News.
“Moreover, we’ve prayed at the Bali Bombing Monument in London, that the grief of all the victims’ families be alleviated and that an incident like this does not happen again,” he added.
Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiya was ultimately held responsible for the brutal blast. A suicide bomber had detonated a bomb in his backpack inside the popular Paddy’s Pub, killing and injuring victims and causing people to run outside onto the street, where a car bomb was then set off in front of the nearby Sari Club.
In addition to the many lives taken, there were 209 non-fatally injured in the bombings.
A bomb was also set off at the US Consulate in Denpasar, but only one person was minorly injured and damage was minimal.
October is a hard month for Bali; the 2002 attack was followed by another bombing several years later in 2005 on Oct. 1 that claimed the lives of 20 people.
