Indonesia: Wife and child of arrested plotter die in explosion

The wife and child of a man arrested for plotting attacks in the Indonesian capital were killed on Wednesday after the woman detonated explosives during a siege of their home in North Sumatra.

The woman blew herself up hours after throwing a home-made bomb that wounded an officer as police tried to search the house in Sibologa district on Tuesday, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told The Jakarta Post. 

“We have received information that the wife blew herself and the child up,” he said. 

Police officers at the location said two explosions were heard and smoke seen at the house at about 1:30am (18:00 GMT), Prasetyo said. Before the blasts, the woman refused calls from police and local leaders to surrender.

“Police are now still conducting sterilisation at the crime scene and finding a safe way to evacuate the bodies of the woman and her child,” he said.

Prasetyo said the woman’s husband, known as Husein, was arrested on Tuesday after the interrogation of  Rinto Sugiharto, another suspect apprehended in Lampung on Saturday, uncovered plans for attacks in Jakarta.

Both men were members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group, police said.

Police asked Husein to persuade his wife to surrender by talking to her through a loudspeaker.

“Peace be unto you. It’s me. I am all good here. Please give up,” Husein said in the local language, the Post reported.