Palu residents and the Palu Police were alarmed on Monday by a suspicious package in front of the Bank Central Asia (BCA) building in Palu, Central Sulawesi.
Although Palu is a more than four-hour drive from Poso, a conflict area and home to the East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT) guerilla group, the conflict and violence have made residents wary.
Local Ramsabiah Razak, 21, said she noticed something wrapped in yellow cloth in front of BCA at 8:30 a.m. At first she was not alarmed, but after a few hours when it was there, her friend Evi became suspicious and called the police
The Palu Police sent a bomb squad to the building on Jl. Muhammad Hatta in East Palu, but the package turned out to be harmless.
Palu Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Basya Radyananda said it was a Tupperware container that contained not a bomb but books.
“It’s just something that someone left there. It’s not bomb,” Basya said.
