SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) – The Muslim family that carried out suicide attacks on three churches in Indonesia’s second-largest city, killing a dozen people as well as its two young daughters, lived comfortably in an upper-middle class suburb and was on friendly terms with a Christian neighbor.
The coordinated bombings on Sunday, followed on Monday by a suicide attack by another family on police headquarters in Surabaya, have horrified Indonesians who typically see their Muslim-majority country as diverse and tolerant.
Neighbors said there were no signs members of the family were planning the acts of violence that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo condemned as “barbaric” and “beyond humanity.” They had lived in the leafy Wonorejo Asri residential community since 2010 and had a good income from the father’s business selling herbal medicines, the neighbors said.
According to police, on Sunday morning the two sons, aged 16 and 18, rode a motorcycle into a church courtyard and detonated their explosives. Puji Kuswati, the mother, attacked worshippers at another church with her daughters, aged 9 and 12, who police said were all wearing suicide vests. The father, Dita Oepriarto, detonated a car bomb outside a third church. Police initially gave his name as Dita Futrianto but corrected that based on his national identity card. All six died.
Raith Yunanto, who lives two houses from the family, said they were always welcoming to her, a minority Christian. She said she went shopping with Kuswati at the local market and they often exchanged different types of food and fruit.