Surabaya suicide bombs: ‘Caring brother’ who led family to death in attack on churches
Dita Oepriarto, whose family of six died carrying out suicide bomb attacks on churches in Indonesia, had been a community leader involved in childhood education programmes, says sister shocked by his death
Twenty-eight people were killed in the attacks that took place over two consecutive days last week, with 13 of those lives accounted for by the three families that carried them out.
In the first attack, on May 13, Dita Oepriarto, the leader of a Jamaah Ansharud Daulah (JAD) cell, rammed a car filled with seven bombs into Surabaya Central Pentecostal Church (GPPS), killing eight people including himself. Soon after, his two sons blew themselves up at the Santa Maria Catholic Church, just a few miles away, while his wife, Puji Kuswati, and their two daughters including 8-year-old Famela Rizqita, bombed the Indonesian Christian Church Diponegoro.
According to Ali Fauzi Manzi, the reformed-terrorist who is also the brother of the infamous Indonesian militant Amrozi, Oepriarto was related to Sukastopo, the militant who helped Amrozi carry out the Bali bombings in 2002 that killed 202. The JAD militant group Oepriarto belonged to has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
Oepriarto’s younger sister, Dendri Oemiarti, told This Week in Asia she was baffled by her brother’s actions. She said he had always been caring towards her and his other younger sister.