September 2, 2025 | 03:16 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Rector of the Islamic University of Bandung (Unisba), A. Harits Nu'man, has claimed that no police entered the campus on the night of Monday, September 1, 2025. "We didn't see any plainclothes police officers enter the campus; they were all demonstrators who were swept into the campus area," he stated on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, at the Unisba Rectorate building.
Harits said he monitored the incident from the rectorate building, which is across from the campus on Jalan Tamansari No. 1, Bandung. He noted that Unisba was on an end-of-semester break, so no classes were in session.
The campus had set up a health service and victim evacuation post, which had been open since the previous Friday. "Anyone injured during the demonstration, we have an obligation to help the victims of this demonstration, which is why we opened the evacuation post," he explained.
He said the Monday protest had concluded at 5:00 p.m. The protest took place in front of the West Java Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) building on Jalan Diponegoro, Bandung.
According to Harits, victims began arriving at the Unisba campus around 5:20 p.m., with medical services closing at 9:00 p.m. "We helped and treated some victims who were short of breath and weak, and they were picked up by their families," he said.
After the protest, a different group of people gathered and blocked roads around Taman Radio, Purnawarman, Hariangbanga, or Ranggagading, and Jalan Tamansari between the Unisba and Pasundan University (Unpas) campuses. Harits identified this group as the true instigators of the chaos. "That group was the real trigger for what was described in quotation marks on social media as police attacking the Unisba campus," he said.
He claimed that the police then conducted a sweep, causing the crowd to flee onto the Unisba campus. "They jumped the fence and forced open the main gate of Unisba," Harits said. He speculated that some of the crowd could have been Unisba students who were just returning home after the health post closed at 9:00 p.m.
"It's possible that some Unisba students were among them," he said. The Rector interpreted the tear gas as an effort to disperse the crowd.
Unisba has since reported the incident to the Governor of West Java, the Mayor of Bandung, and the Minister of Higher Education.
In contrast to the rector's statement, Unisba Student President Kamal Rahmatullah claimed that Unisba students experienced a brutal attack by joint Indonesian Military (TNI) and Indonesian National Police (Polri) personnel. When reporters asked whether tear gas had been fired inside the campus, Kamal replied, "It didn't go all the way inside the campus; it only reached the front gate," he said.
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