Lover: I told him that it would be better not to make plans

KUALA LUMPUR: Aulia was unable to contain her grief. She recalled the promises of her lover, Bripda Ridho Setiawan, 21, who was supposed to have picked her up from work and bring her to the angkringan (sidewalk stalls).

Detiknews reported that they managed to communicate with each other, and that he had suggested paying a visit to the stalls.

“He said ‘tomorrow you are working, I’m on holiday. Then when you are on holiday, I’m working. I will pick you up and we will go to the angkringan’.

“I told him that it would be better not to make plans, as it may not work out. He said ‘let what has been planned, happen’.

“Then I said, there is no point talking about it now,” she said at the funeral home at the Dasana Indah housing area in Tangerang yesterday.

Ridho was one of three police officers killed in a suicide bomb attack in Jakarta on Wednesday. He had managed to contact Aulia while on duty.

Detiknews reported that at the time of the incident, Ridho was on escort duty for a torch relay ahead of Ramadan.

Later, Aulia became worried because she could not get in touch with Ridho. She managed to check the conversation thread in a WhatsApp group to get news on Ridho.

The portal also reported that Aulia got to know Ridha while schooling at SMK Penerbangan Dirgantara in Curug, Banten.

While Ridho’s family wanted him to continue his studies at the College of Aviation Science, he wanted to be a police officer.

Aulia’s worries were compounded around 3am when Ridho’s sister, Richa, contacted her and told her that Ridho was killed.

“At 3am, Icha (Richa) said should Ridho be hit by the explosion at Kampung Melayu, let us hope that nothing happens to him,” she said.

However, the portal reported Aulia only learned about Ridho’s death in the morning. She rushed to the funeral home to see Ridho’s body.

A burial ceremony was conducted for Ridho at the Al-Jihad mosque, located near the funeral home. After that, the youngest of the three siblings was taken back to Lampung, his birthplace, to be buried there.