Two blasts went off at State High School 72 in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, on the afternoon of 7 November 2025. Ninety-six people were hurt. Some had burns, others were cut by flying glass, and ambulances took them to hospitals across the city.
The first explosion came inside the school mosque, just after a sermon ahead of Friday prayers. The second hit the canteen area. Brimob, the mobile police brigade, had sealed off the grounds by 1:45 p.m. local time.
Early accounts got details wrong. Witnesses talked about a fault in the public address system, or gas cylinders blowing up in the mosque. Neither was true.
What police found
Officers recovered seven improvised explosive devices in and around the mosque, some of them hidden in soda cans, Reuters reported. Several had been set off by remote control and others by fuse. Three never detonated.
Deputy Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus said an airsoft rifle, a revolver and a tactical vest were also found in the mosque. The rifle carried handwritten names of far-right killers, among them Brenton Tarrant, Alexandre Bissonnette and Luca Traini. Neo-Nazi symbols were drawn on it, and “Welcome to Hell” was written on the bolt cover. Investigators also reported a toy gun with the word “vengeance” on it.
The suspect wore a white T-shirt reading “HATRED” in Russian, a nod to Vladislav Roslyakov, who carried out the 2018 massacre at a Kerch college.
The suspect
He is a 17-year-old Year-12 student, and police have kept his name out of their statements. Under Indonesian law he is a “child in conflict with the law”, which means juvenile procedures that stress rehabilitation. Jakarta police chief Asep Edi Suheri used the phrase “child facing the law” when speaking about him.
His fate was muddled at first. One account had him shot dead on Ganesha Road, about 200 meters from the school, and another said a bomb killed him. Both were wrong. Police later confirmed he had tried to fire on students fleeing across the roof, fell, and ended up in hospital for surgery after a head injury.
Mayndra Eka Wardhana, a senior officer with the anti-terror unit Detachment 88, called him “a lone actor motivated by vengeance and loneliness”. Police said he belonged to no militant group and had no ties to any terrorist organization.
A diary seized by police described constant bullying, isolation and a troubled home. It also recorded an attack plan and sketches of the school. He had spent time on gore sites and on Terrorgram channels, where right-wing extremists praised school shootings and the Christchurch mosque attacks. Wardhana said the teenager admired attackers such as Tarrant and drew on the Columbine and Christchurch massacres. “He felt there was no place to share his complaints, neither with his family nor school,” Wardhana said.
On 21 November, police told Antara he was still disoriented and sometimes incoherent, and could not yet be questioned.
Government response
Prasetyo Hadi, the State Secretary, said President Prabowo Subianto was deeply concerned and wanted swift action for the victims. A psychological recovery team went to the school for students, teachers and staff. The government also said it was weighing limits on video games with weapons, and Prasetyo singled out PUBG: Battlegrounds as dangerous for children.
The National Counter Terrorism Agency, BNPT, was reluctant to label the bombing terrorism. By its reading, the attack lacked the organization seen in Islamist cases, which are more common in Indonesia.
On 30 December, police said 68 children and teenagers in 18 provinces were linked to the suspect through a Telegram group called the “True Crime Community”, where they met white supremacist and neo-Nazi material. Police also said Densus 88 cyber patrols had stopped 20 school attacks planned after the Jakarta blasts.
Al Chaidar, a terrorism researcher at Malikussaleh University, put Indonesia’s neo-Nazi network at roughly 300 people, nearly all under 17. He argued that recruiters prefer minors because they face far lighter sentences.
Sources
- 2025 Jakarta school bombing – Wikipedia
- Indonesian Police Say Mosque Blast Suspect Influenced by Neo-Nazi Attacks
