Police say a mob of online motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers in Senen, Central Jakarta attacked a car on Wednesday evening, injuring its driver and one passenger. Video and photos of the assault have gone viral recently.
The story really went viral when @jktinfo, a popular local news aggregator on Instagram, posted a photo showing online ojek drivers surrounding a white Nissan X-Trail with a couple of them standing on it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfv1-O6l44Y/?taken-by=jktinfo
The account also posted one video showing dramatic footage of the SUV attempting to flee from the mob of ojek drivers and bulldozing past some motorcycles in the process, as well as another video showing the damage to the car.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfv3yhlF2Uv/?taken-by=jktinfo
Based on the initial findings of their investigation, the Central Jakarta Police said the X-Trail was driving towards Senen when their path was blocked by scores of online ojek drivers, who were escorting the body of a colleague on their way to his funeral.
“So there was a gathering of online ojek drivers. The driver wanted to drive through and honked to ask them to give way. But there were some ojek drivers who didn’t appreciate [the honking] who then started hitting the car,” said Central Jakarta Police Chief Roma Hutajulu, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
Roma said more ojek drivers quickly joined to gang up on the car. In his panic, the driver put his foot on the gas pedal, knocking over some motorcycles (however, there were no reports of ojek drivers getting injured). The ojek drivers then chased after the car, which was forced to stop in the Senen underpass. The X-Trail driver and passenger got out of the car and ran, while the ojek drivers inflicted damage on the car, including smashing its windshield with what appeared to be some bricks.
At some points during the whole ordeal, the driver and passenger received several light injuries, including several cuts and bruises. The police have yet to identify and arrest the ojek drivers responsible for the attack.
Grab Indonesia, which operates the motorcycle taxi ride-hailing service GrabBike, issued an apology as it was their drivers clearly seen attacking the X-Trail in the photo and video footage of the incident. In a statement released yesterday, the company said it would carry out an investigation to determine the identity of the attackers, who will have their driving partnership with Grab terminated.
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