by Abu Hanifah
SURABAYA, Indonesia, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Families of those killed in Indonesia's Surabaya suicide bombings have called for tougher measures against terrorism so that people can lead a life without fear and misery.
Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, has been haunted by a series of terror attacks in the past few days. Targetting three landmark churches and one police headquarters, the suicide bombings killed at least 18 people and injured dozens of others.
Although the police has made several arrests of suspected terrorists in the neighborhood and raided several buildings where they may hide, fear for suicide bombings is still lingering on in the city.
Waiting in a disaster victim identification (DVI) unit at Surabaya's police hospital of Bhayangkara, Max Prawira Teja, son of a victim in the suicide bombing of Surabaya's Flawless St. Mary Church, said that terrorism has devastated his family with the sudden passing away of his mother in such a horrific incident.
Max Prawira Teja, a man in his 20s who was hardly able to hide his deep sorrow for his beloved mother Lim Gwat Nie, told Xinhua Monday night that "Moments before the blast I was still chatting with my mom who asked about progress of may father's health examination."
He was accompanying his father to undertake a health check in a hospital in Tangerang, Banten province when the deadly blast occurred.
Max did not know until he got home and learned from TV reports that a suicide bomb blast had occurred in the church where his mom attended on Sunday.
After watching the CCTV footages broadcasted by the TV station, the whole family cried as they believed the woman standing at the church entrance gate shown in the footages was their mother.
"I can see that she was my mother from the CCTV. She stood there with aunt Cisca (Eddy Handoko)," he said with his trembling voice, apparently trying hard to control his emotion. The suicide bombers detonated bombs tied to their bodies after breaking in the front gate with a motorbike.
"The bomb exploded right besides my mother," he broke into tears.
Lim Gwat Nie, 56, and Cisca Eddy Handoko, who was at the same age and a very close friend of Max's mother, were among the 18 killed in the suicide bombings in Surabaya's three churches.
Max said his mother and his aunt were visiting the church on Sunday morning to witness its unique building and have a morning service there.
After undergoing the make-up process in the DVI, bodies of his mother and his aunt would be flown back to Jakarta.
"I hope this tragic incident was the last. There should be no more innocent ones fallen in such an inhumane act."
Meanwhile, a relative of Cisca said that to visit the Batik exhibition had been planned by the two ill-fated friends long time ago. They flew to Surabaya together from Jakarta.
"I still could not believe it. She was a happy person who cheered up our lives everyday. No sign or anything at all that she would gone so soon. The night before the attack, she and her friend chose that church for its antiquity," Cisca's brother-in-law, 75-year-old Tirta, told Xinhua.
Tirta said his last conversation wth Cisca was in the night before the bombing when he commended the church opted by Cisca for her morning church service.
Commenting on the authorities' actions taken after the terror attacks, Turta said tougher measures should be taken to win the fight against terrorism in the country.
"Immediate and firmer actions are needed to end people's misery and to restore the security from terror activities," he said.
The latest suicide bombings have shown a new phenomenon in Indonesia's terror attack, with the attacks on the three churches conducted by a family of six persons and the attack on the police headquarters carried out by a family of five members. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for all the attacks.