Book bomb posted to liberal Muslim activist injures four

Mar 15, 2011, 11:34 GMT

Jakarta - A package containing a book bomb addressed to an Indonesian liberal Muslim activist exploded on Tuesday, injuring three police and a security guard, police and television reports said.

Staff at the Utan Kayu Community, home to the Liberal Islamic Network, alerted police when they received a suspicious package addressed to network founder Ulil Abshar Abdalla.

Police opened the package and poured water on it in an apparent attempt to defuse the device seconds before it went off, television footage showed.

'The officer was not careful in handling the package,' police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said, referring to the local police chief detective who lost an arm in the blast.

US-educated Abdalla, known for his campaign to promote religious pluralism in mainly-Muslim Indonesia, said he did not know if he had been targeted.

'I have many friends and I don't know if I have enemies,' Abdalla told TV One.

Some conservative Muslims have criticized Abdalla's work with the Islamic Liberal Network, accusing him of peddling liberal Western values.

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