Home > Breaking News > SE Asia > Story
Aug 16, 2009
JAKARTA BOMBINGS
Teen lured into bombing
18-year-old became easy prey for itinerant preacher who spread message of violence
By Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Indonesia Correspondent
The teen's best friend, Wildan (left), said Dani had told him he wanted to become a martyr. -- PHOTO: WAHYUDI SOERIAATMADJA
BOGOR - DANI Dwi Permana's father is in jail for stealing, his mother is in Kalimantan looking for a job, and his elder brother works in Jakarta.
All alone, life was hard for the 18-year-old, according to close friends of the family and neighbours in Telaga Kahuripan, a village about two hours from Jakarta.
Now, to their shock, Dani is dead. Most shocking is how he died.
Last month, he became Indonesia's youngest suicide bomber when he blew himself up at the JW Marriott Hotel, snuffing out the lives of five innocent people as well.
Madam Ramila Sangaji, 51, the mother of Dani's best friend Wildan Novstatian, said: 'I used to tell my boy Wildan that he should follow Dani because he never fooled around and always said prayers at the mosque five times a day.
'It was a great surprise to me that Dani turned out to be a bomber.'
But the young man might be just one of scores of teenagers recruited by Muslim extremists in Indonesia, a development that is of growing concern to the government.
Left to fend for himself, Dani had become easy prey for a stranger who came to his village one day to preach a message of violence and hate at the local mosque.
Wildan, 18, told The Sunday Times in a phone interview: 'Dani had told me one day that he wanted to become a martyr. I told him that he would die for nothing.'
The itinerant preacher, identified by police as Saifuddin Jailani, held religious study sessions at the village mosque every Saturday night.
Aug 16, 2009
JAKARTA BOMBINGS
Teen lured into bombing
18-year-old became easy prey for itinerant preacher who spread message of violence
By Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Indonesia Correspondent
The teen's best friend, Wildan (left), said Dani had told him he wanted to become a martyr. -- PHOTO: WAHYUDI SOERIAATMADJA
BOGOR - DANI Dwi Permana's father is in jail for stealing, his mother is in Kalimantan looking for a job, and his elder brother works in Jakarta.
All alone, life was hard for the 18-year-old, according to close friends of the family and neighbours in Telaga Kahuripan, a village about two hours from Jakarta.
Now, to their shock, Dani is dead. Most shocking is how he died.
Last month, he became Indonesia's youngest suicide bomber when he blew himself up at the JW Marriott Hotel, snuffing out the lives of five innocent people as well.
Madam Ramila Sangaji, 51, the mother of Dani's best friend Wildan Novstatian, said: 'I used to tell my boy Wildan that he should follow Dani because he never fooled around and always said prayers at the mosque five times a day.
'It was a great surprise to me that Dani turned out to be a bomber.'
But the young man might be just one of scores of teenagers recruited by Muslim extremists in Indonesia, a development that is of growing concern to the government.
Left to fend for himself, Dani had become easy prey for a stranger who came to his village one day to preach a message of violence and hate at the local mosque.
Wildan, 18, told The Sunday Times in a phone interview: 'Dani had told me one day that he wanted to become a martyr. I told him that he would die for nothing.'
The itinerant preacher, identified by police as Saifuddin Jailani, held religious study sessions at the village mosque every Saturday night.
