Suspect in Indonesia mosque bombing was inspired by past mass killings, police say
Jakarta police chief Asep Edi Suheri speaks as evidence lies on a table during a press conference at Jakarta police headquarters in Jakarta on Nov 11, 2025, following explosions that occurred at a mosque inside a school complex in the Indonesian capital. (Photo: Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
JAKARTA: The student suspected of detonating blasts that injured dozens of people at a mosque in Indonesia's capital last week was motivated by vengeance and inspired by attacks carried out by white supremacists and neo-Nazis, police said on Tuesday (Nov 11).
The blasts, which hit a mosque at a school complex in Jakarta's Kelapa Gading area during Friday prayers, left 96 people injured.
Police said on Tuesday that seven homemade explosives had been found by Indonesian authorities in and around the mosque, some of them in Coca-Cola cans.
Some bombs were triggered via remote control and some via fuse, and three did not explode, they said. Police said they also found a toy firearm at the scene with inscriptions, one of which read "vengeance".
Last week, police said the suspect was a 17-year-old student at an adjacent school. Jakarta police chief Asep Edi Suheri did not name the suspect on Tuesday, referring to him as a "child facing the law".
The alleged perpetrator was a lone wolf motivated by vengeance and loneliness, said Mayndra Eka Wardhana, an official at the Indonesian police anti-terror unit.
He said the suspect had been inspired by attacks carried out by neo-Nazi and white supremacist figures and had joined a social media community glorifying grisly violence, but that he did not appear to subscribe to a specific ideology or be part of any militant network.
Police cited the perpetrators of shootings such as the 2019 attack at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in the United States, as possible inspirations for the blasts.
"That inspired the alleged perpetrator," Mayndra said. "He felt there was no place to share his complaints, neither with his family nor school."
The suspect, who sustained a head injury at the time of the explosions, is recovering after undergoing surgery.
