Head of Protocol Section of the Istiqlal Mosque, Abu Hurairah, admitted that his party had never prohibited the 212 protest crowd from visiting the Istiqlal mosque. He denied that if the Istiqlal Mosque had its gates locked, it would be used by the masses
"A thousand percent hoax," said Abu when contacted, Tuesday (21/2/2017).
Abu explained, the gate of the Istiqlal mosque was closed at 21.310 WIB, and would be reopened an hour before the dawn prayer.
"Outside the fasting month, the Isha prayer ends, around 21.30 WIB according to the law, it is closed, sterile. Then it is opened again one hour before dawn. That is outside the fasting month," he explained.
He said that the crowd who came to the Istiqlal mosque last night was a group from East Java, as many as 5 buses. They enter after Isha, then are given the opportunity to worship clean, talk nicely with the chairman,
"We gave understanding, and thank God we understood and left istiqlal voluntarily," he said.
He reiterated that if the Istiqlal Mosque had never banned the 212 mass demonstration, he said the issue of the ban was not true.
"The intruders are the people who wrote accusing the PKI. Except for Axis 212, 411, which we expelled the day before and it was an emergency. There was no coordination, they didn't take action like 212," he said.