Haunting videos from last night’s rioting in Jakarta have gone viral showing a woman wearing a black niqab (face veil) and backpack, isolated and acting strangely first in the face of orders from the police and then after they shoot tear gas at her.
The voice of a policeman can be heard talking through a loudspeaker and demanding the woman, who is also wearing eyeglasses, sit down.
However, the woman appears to either ignore or not hear the police officer’s warnings, leading to tear gas being fired at her. The post below contains another video showing the woman walk away after the tear gas has been fired.
https://www.facebook.com/idris.brutally.3/posts/900402406985006
Moments later, authorities secured her. This afternoon, police released some information from their investigation.
Police searched the woman’s backpack and found no bomb, only mineral water, a small Quran, a book of Tafsir and a bottle of medicine.
“It was a fake bomb. The preliminary results of our investigation is that the person in question was depressed. But she is still being checked by a psychiatrist,” National Police spokesperson Dedi Prasetyo said today as quoted by Tribun.
Concerns about potential terrorist suicide bombings taking place during the post-election protests have been a major concern for security forces since anti-terrorism police arrested dozens suspected of planning attacks and belonging to the ISIS-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) terrorist group, which has been responsible for several suicide bomb attacks in Indonesia.
Many shared the sentiments of ABC Australia reporter David Lipson, who shared a video showing the police’s reaction to the woman and praising their restraint in general.
Fearing a suicide bombing, police order this woman to sit down. Se refuses. Eventually she was stopped by tear gas.
Police have actually shown incredible restraint. #JakartaRiots pic.twitter.com/Q8Z3kzqQnP— David Lipson (@davidlipson) May 23, 2019
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan announced today that say at least eight people have been killed in the rioting in Jakarta over the last two nights, adding two to the previously reported total. Last night, police arrested 257 suspected of provoking and taking part in the riots and officials say there is strong evidence that many of those captured came from outside of Jakarta and were paid to create chaos during the protests.
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