The Islamic College of Bandung’s pupil physique says safety officers ‘brutally attacked’ the campus with tear fuel.
Revealed On 2 Sep 2025
Indonesian police have used tear fuel on crowds of protesters close to two universities, pupil teams and authorities mentioned, amid ongoing nationwide protests focusing on authorities spending, and burgeoning fury following a bike taxi driver’s demise after being hit by a police automobile.
On Tuesday, authorities deployed tear fuel across the campuses of the Islamic College of Bandung (UNISBA) and close by Pasundan College, greater than 140km (86 miles) west of the capital, Jakarta.
Muhammad Ilham, a Pasundan pupil, instructed the Reuters information company that authorities fired tear fuel canisters from outdoors the campus gates in addition to rubber bullets.
“There was a pupil who received hit by the rubber bullet, two photographs,” he mentioned.
At the least eight folks have died within the protests since final week, Coordinating Minister for Financial Affairs Airlangga Hartarto mentioned on Monday.
Based on police official Hendra Rochmawan, authorities on Tuesday didn’t enter the campuses however tried to interrupt up crowds of non-student protesters who had been looking for safety throughout the college grounds.
UNISBA rector Harits Nu’man echoed the police assertion and confirmed that the campus had been used as a medical hub for protesters.
Nonetheless, the UNISBA pupil physique accused safety forces of looking for to silence dissent, saying they “brutally attacked” the campus as tear fuel brought on respiration issues for some college students.
Mass unrest
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from a crowd of bike taxi drivers in central Jakarta, mentioned they have been gathering to honour the 21-year-old driver who was killed after being hit by an armoured police automobile in the course of the protests.
“There are literally thousands of them. They are saying to display the ability of peaceable meeting to allow them to honour their colleague, that they’ll name for his or her varied calls for, together with financial inequality and do it peacefully,” Washington mentioned.
She added that many civil society teams in Indonesia have been at present “elevating the alarm” over a civil society chief who was arrested late final evening in Jakarta.
Extra protests are anticipated on Tuesday outdoors parliament in Jakarta, organised by a coalition of ladies’s teams.
Because the protests started final week, a minimum of 20 protesters have gone lacking as anger elevated attributable to mass overspending by lawmakers and police violence, in line with the Fee for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS).
The group mentioned 20 folks have been reported lacking within the cities of Bandung and Depok on Java Island, and the executive cities of Central Jakarta, East Jakarta and North Jakarta.
College college students have lengthy been considered vanguards of Indonesia’s democracy, having taken a number one position in protests that helped topple President Soeharto in 1998.
Present President Prabowo Subianto, a navy chief below Soeharto, is going through the primary main check of his management. He met labour unions, a few of which joined final week’s protest pushing for an increase within the minimal wage, and mentioned he instructed lawmakers to debate labour legal guidelines, in line with an announcement from his workplace.
Indonesians have added pink and inexperienced hues to their social media profile photos in response to the protests, with some utilizing the hashtag #ResetIndonesia and outlining their calls for for the federal government.
