Jakarta – An unidentified person threw Molotov cocktails at the office of Aceh-based tabloid newspaper Modus in Gampong Berauwe, Aceh, on Saturday.
There were no casualties reported but the building suffered from minor damages.
Tempo.co reported that Modus chief editor, Muhammad Saleh, said he was not present during the incident as he was accompanying his wife at the hospital.
Saleh learned about the accident at 8:00 am after a staff member contacted him. He directly reported the incident to the Banda Aceh Police, who immediately began a search for the perpetrator.
The explosion was not particularly loud, with one staff member who was sleeping at the office saying they did not hear it. However, a worker at a coffee kiosk in front of the office heard two explosions and saw flames.
"The coffee kiosk worker was the one who put out the fire. If the worker wasn't there the office might have burned," Saleh said on Saturday.
The Aceh Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI Aceh) chairman, Misdarul Ihsan, denounced the incident as a terror attack on media workers. "We asked the police to uncover the motive [of the attack] and conduct a thorough investigation," he said. (dpk)