Indonesia: Catholic Church Remembers Victims of IS-Family Suicide Bombings
The Santa Maria Catholic Church in Surayaba, Indonesia has held a remembrance ceremony for the victims of the suicide bombings, carried out by an Islamic State-inspired family.
According to the Guardian, the ceremony took place exactly one year after the attacks took place, highlighting the extremist group’s global reach. The attack led to the killing of over a dozen congregants with many others injured.
It was gathered that a family of six including two girls, aged nine and twelve blew themselves up at the Church and two other churches in Surabaya during Sunday morning services.
Following the attack, another family who went to the same Koranic study group as the first attackers, staged suicide bombings at a police station in Indonesia’s second-biggest city the following day, wounding ten.
The Santa Maria church on Monday recorded several hundreds gathering for a memorial prayer session and to hear survivor accounts of the bloodshed, which had raised fears that suicide bomber families could be a terrifying new modus operandi for IS.
Desmonda, a Christian woman who survived the bombings, said “I have learned to move on and not be traumatized by the attacks because that’s what they (terrorists) want.”
Another survivor Rachmat Harjono Tengadi, a 56-year-old woman explained how she was struck by shrapnel during the attack.
She said “It’s hard to overcome the trauma even though it has been a year. Even now if I see somebody wearing a black burqa, my heart feels sick.”
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