Woman shot dead after opening fire at Indonesia’s national police headquarters
Indonesian police have shot dead a woman who opened fire at officers at the national police headquarters in Jakarta, in an attack authorities say was inspired by the Islamic State.
Indonesian National Police Chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said on Wednesday the 25-year-old woman, identified only by her initials ZA, fired six times at officers near an entrance post to the headquarters before being killed.
He didn’t say whether any police were injured.
The woman was a former college student who lived in Jakarta and she had posted a photo of the Islamic State, or ISIS, flag on her Instagram account hours before the shooting, Police-General Sigit said.
“From the profiling of the person in question, that person was a suspect or a lone wolf with the ideology of radical ISIS,” Police-General Sigit told a news conference, adding that she had left a note for her parents bidding farewell.
“However, we will continue to thoroughly investigate any possible connection of radical networks to the suspect.”
Footage aired by local television stations showed a person in a blue veil and long black clothing entering the grounds of the police complex as gunshots could be heard.
She was later seen falling to the ground amid more gunshots.
A bomb squad member approached her body, which was lying in the rain with the gun nearby, and determined there were no dangerous materials in the area before the body was removed, the videos showed.
The incident came three days after a husband and wife carried out a suicide bombing at a cathedral on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Palm Sunday, wounding 20 and killing only themselves.
They were believed to have been members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and carried out a series of suicide bombings in Indonesia.
Authorities imposed a counterterrorism crackdown and went on heightened alert for possible attacks against police and places of worship.
At least 13 people have been arrested by police in Jakarta, Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara provinces following the Sulawesi attack.
Terrorism analyst Al Chaidar said Wednesday’s attempted attack was likely intended as revenge for a sweep of police arrests of suspected religious extremists in recent days.
Source: ABC
