Indonesian minister Wiranto’s stab wound ‘reached his intestines’: government adviser

Ex-constitutional court chief justice Mahfud MD, who is now a government adviser, revealed the seriousness of chief security minister Wiranto’s injuries from an attack by an IS sympathiser this week

The attacker was already under police surveillance and had recently bought a set of ‘Ninja-style’ knives online

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Soldiers carry Indonesian minister Wiranto on a stretcher to a waiting helicopter to be evacuated to Jakarta, in Pandeglang, Banten province. Photo: AP

Published: 5:38pm, 12 Oct 2019Updated: 10:45pm, 12 Oct 2019

Indonesian chief security minister Wiranto’s wounds from a stabbing attack last week went so deep that he required surgery on his intestines, a senior government adviser has revealed.

Mahfud MD, who sits on the steering committee of a government agency promoting Indonesia’s secular ideology Pancasila – that stresses national unity despite ethnic and religious diversity – said these details were given to him by Dr Terawan Agus Putranto, the head of the Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital, where Wiranto is being treated.

“Yes, [Wiranto’s] intestines were reached [during the stabbing]... it had to be cut and joined back again,” Mahfud, the former Constitutional Court chief justice, told CNN Indonesia.

Wiranto, a 72-year-old retired four-star general and former commander of the armed forces, was attacked in the West Java town of Pandeglang on Thursday, when he was getting out of his car after officiating a university event.

Video footage of the attack showed a man dressed in a black T-shirt dashing to the black vehicle and sticking a knife into Wiranto, who collapsed to the ground. Media reports said a woman then lunged at the local police chief who was part of the welcoming party for Wiranto.

Police said a 31-year-old man named Syahril Alamsyah, alias Abu Rara, and a 21-year-old woman named Fitri Andriana were later arrested as perpetrators of the attack.