Hundreds of people from the Islam Defender Front (FPI) attacked members of the HKBP church in Pondok Indah Timur at Mustika Jaya district, Bekasi, West Java at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
“He hadn’s started our church service when in all of a sudden FPI masses occupied the church service location by forcing their way through police barricade,” Hendrik Siagian, a guide of HKBP church members, said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Hundreds of police officers had actually been on a stand-by to help secure the church service, but they turned out to be unable to stop the FPI masses from entering the church service area.
“When we decided to go home, the FPI masses hunted down and hit us. The situation was in chaos…. I saw by myself a housewife was being beaten up by them,” Hendrik said.
Dozens of church followers were wounded. “Most of the victims were housewives,” he said. Several minutes after the attack the FPI masses dispersed themselves.
Hendrik suspected that the attack constituted a scenario prepared by the police and FPI. Why did the police fail to stop the FPI people from entering the area?” he asked.
“The police’s barricade was very weak, and the police seemed not to protect the church members. The police gave up, while they should have made any preparations for such an attack,” Hendrik said.
The FPI masses have opposed the existence of HKBP church at Pondok Indah Timur for a long time. FPI earlier forcefully stopped a church service and drove away the church goers on ground that the church was established without any permit.
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