The bombers next door: how an Indonesian family turned into suicide attackers

It was through food that the family of the Indonesian church bombers demonstrated neighbourly affection.

Over the years, plates of fried bananas or steamed packages of rice stuffed with vegetables and chicken, were exchanged countless times over the fence. From their gardens in the Javan city of Surabaya, handfuls of moringa leaves or a few starfruit were passed over.

The afternoon before 42-year-old Puji strapped on a bomb-laden belt and walked toward the Indonesia Christian church in the city, she was again in the kitchen.

Wery Tri Kusuma and his wife last saw their next-door neighbour buying vegetables just hours before she blew herself up.

“My wife asked her what she was cooking,” recalls Wery, “‘Nothing special,’ she replied, ‘Just something for the kids.’”