Police Say Brimob Personnel Not from China
Translator
Editor
22 May 2019 14:43 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Police Headquarters strongly denied rumors went viral on social media saying that its Brimob personnel deployed to secure Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Board), KPU (General Election Commission), and several other locations in Jakarta were from China.
"Images spread on social media informed that Brimob personnel was from China. It's not true," the police chief of public relation M. Iqbal said in Jakarta, Wednesday, May 22, asserting that the Mobile Police Brigade (Brimob) personnel were purely Indonesian.
Iqbal also refuted that Brimob personnel had attacked mosques as the pictures on social media say. "Our TNI fellows have never attacked mosques. But [certain people made] the news viral," he said. His office is currently searching the social media accounts that spread the hoax.
The authorities say the riot near Bawaslu and Jalan KS Tubun early on May 22 had been designed. They seized pieces of evidence such as stones and envelopes filled with cash after securing the mass.
"I'm saying that the series of incident occurred since early in the morning was not spontaneous, it [happened] by design, it has been set," he said.
According to the police, riots broke at several locations, namely Wahid Hasyim, Sabang, and KS Tubun streets after a clash among the mass in front of Bawaslu office on late Tuesday, May 21.
The mass was different from the ones previously held a rally in front of the Bawaslu office on the same day as they had dispersed at 21:00 local time.
HALIDA BUNGA | ANTARA
