Five held over Indonesia explosion

Published August 28, 2005

AMBON, Aug 27: Indonesian police said on Saturday that they had arrested five more people following a bomb blast that wounded several people in a market here. Police also discovered explosive material at the house of a suspect on the run after Thursday’s blast, they said.

The five were arrested on the nearby island of Seram on Friday, Ambon city police chief Leonidas Braksan told reporters. Four were suspects and the fifth was being questioned as witness, he said.

Six other people had been arrested earlier for the attack.

Announcing the arrests on Friday, the police chief said two of the suspects could be linked to a local hard-line group, the Mujahedin.

CRACKDOWN: At least 70 foreign sex workers, mostly from China and Uzbekistan, had been arrested in the Jakarta in a crackdown which had netted 138 suspects this week, police said on Saturday.

Jakarta police spokesman Tjiptono said most of those arrested, including four pimps, were suspected of misusing their tourist visas and would be deported if found guilty.—AFP

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