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 stated, amid ongoing nationwide protests concentrating on authorities spending, and burgeoning fury following a bike taxi driver’s demise after being hit by a police automotive.
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 pictures,” he stated.
At the very least eight folks have died within the protests since final week, Coordinating Minister for Financial Affairs Airlangga Hartarto stated on Monday.
In keeping with 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 inside 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 prompted respiration issues for some college students.
Mass unrest
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from a crowd of bike taxi drivers in central Jakarta, stated they have been gathering to honour the 21-year-old driver who was killed after being hit by an armoured police automobile through the protests.
“There are millions of them. They are saying to show the facility of peaceable meeting to allow them to honour their colleague, that they will name for his or her varied calls for, together with financial inequality and do it peacefully,” Washington stated.
She added that many civil society teams in Indonesia have been at the moment “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.
For the reason that protests started final week, not less than 20 protesters have gone lacking as anger elevated because of mass overspending by lawmakers and police violence, based on the Fee for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS).
The group stated 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 thought to be vanguards of Indonesia’s democracy, having taken a number one function in protests that helped topple President Soeharto in 1998.
Present President Prabowo Subianto, a army chief below Soeharto, is dealing with 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 stated he instructed lawmakers to debate labour legal guidelines, based on a press release 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.
