Pride and joy turned to shock and fear within seconds in a farmer’s household in North Aceh on Friday when the family learned that a mysterious treasure they had found at the bottom of their well, cleaned and ceremonially blessed, was in fact a homemade bomb.
Farmer Sulaiman, 60, could not hide his joy when his son-in-law, Subki, 42, said he had found the apparent treasure lodged in the bottom of their well in Tanjong Baroh Beureughang village, Tanah Luas district.
Subki had told his father-in-law that minutes after he had squelched down into the five-meter-deep well to clear mud out of the bottom, his left foot had struck an object. Sulaiman quickly asked him to bring up the object, and when it emerged they could see that it was a brown, oval object measuring about 20 by 10 centimeters.
“We all initially believed it to be valuable ancient treasure,” Sulaiman said.
“We nearly broke it open with a hammer, because we wanted to know what was inside.”
He added he had asked Subki to bring the object into the kitchen, where they cleaned it thoroughly before Sulaiman instructed his wife and grandchild to find leaves to perform a peusijuek, a traditional blessing ceremony to bestow prosperity, which they all performed vigorously.
Sulaiman grew more anxious to know what was inside.
“We wanted to hammer it open, but after we cleaned it, we found two wires sticking out of the object,” Subki said.
“When we saw them, we suddenly realized this was a homemade bomb that had been thrown into the well by someone.”
The family immediately raced to tell the village chief about their find, and police were brought in.
“The report reached us at 10.30 a.m. and we immediately sent bomb experts to the scene,” said North Aceh Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Herman Sikumbang on Friday, confirming that the six-kilogram object was indeed a homemade bomb that was still active.
“It is a low-explosive device,” Herman said. “The experts decided that the object needed to be very carefully removed because it was a residential area, after all, and it would have been very dangerous if it had exploded.”
A police line was put up around Sulaiman’s home, but it did not stop hundreds of residents from crowding around to watch the bomb being removed. It was taken to the National Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) headquarters in Lhokseumawe.
The bomb is believed to be a remnant of the 1976-2005 separatist conflict in Aceh.
Farmer Sulaiman, 60, could not hide his joy when his son-in-law, Subki, 42, said he had found the apparent treasure lodged in the bottom of their well in Tanjong Baroh Beureughang village, Tanah Luas district.
Subki had told his father-in-law that minutes after he had squelched down into the five-meter-deep well to clear mud out of the bottom, his left foot had struck an object. Sulaiman quickly asked him to bring up the object, and when it emerged they could see that it was a brown, oval object measuring about 20 by 10 centimeters.
“We all initially believed it to be valuable ancient treasure,” Sulaiman said.
“We nearly broke it open with a hammer, because we wanted to know what was inside.”
He added he had asked Subki to bring the object into the kitchen, where they cleaned it thoroughly before Sulaiman instructed his wife and grandchild to find leaves to perform a peusijuek, a traditional blessing ceremony to bestow prosperity, which they all performed vigorously.
Sulaiman grew more anxious to know what was inside.
“We wanted to hammer it open, but after we cleaned it, we found two wires sticking out of the object,” Subki said.
“When we saw them, we suddenly realized this was a homemade bomb that had been thrown into the well by someone.”
The family immediately raced to tell the village chief about their find, and police were brought in.
“The report reached us at 10.30 a.m. and we immediately sent bomb experts to the scene,” said North Aceh Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Herman Sikumbang on Friday, confirming that the six-kilogram object was indeed a homemade bomb that was still active.
“It is a low-explosive device,” Herman said. “The experts decided that the object needed to be very carefully removed because it was a residential area, after all, and it would have been very dangerous if it had exploded.”
A police line was put up around Sulaiman’s home, but it did not stop hundreds of residents from crowding around to watch the bomb being removed. It was taken to the National Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) headquarters in Lhokseumawe.
The bomb is believed to be a remnant of the 1976-2005 separatist conflict in Aceh.
